The Zellner Brothers have practiced their own brand of deadpan absurdity for more than a decade in Austin, TX, but with their third feature Goliath, writer-director David and producer-director Nathan are looking to expand their emotional palette. David Zellner stars as a man in a downward spiral; he’s in the midst of a messy divorce, he’s been demoted at his workplace, and now, worst of all, his beloved cat Goliath is missing.
His initial search proving fruitless (he tries to lure Goliath back with the sound of an electric can opener), he begins papering the neighborhood with fliers, at which point he learns that a sex offender has moved in just around the corner. Our increasingly unhinged hero comes to the dubious conclusion that this man, Chad P. Franklin (Nathan Zellner), is responsible for Goliath’s disappearance. A surprising and somewhat disturbing confrontation ensues.
A description of the plot does little to give a sense of what Goliath is all about. The Zellners tend to work in long takes, sometimes pushing the boundaries of an audience’s patience. There is one mind-bogglingly extended scene involving the divorce proceedings that has the potential to clear a theater, but that was fortunately not the case at the SXSW screening. Leave too soon and you’ll miss out on some trademark Zellner weirdness, like the sex offender’s unusual method of communication or a glimpse of the world’s most bizarre Internet porn site.
There is also something moving about the grieving pet owner’s plight, even amidst the strange stuff. If it is at times too leisurely paced, Goliath does pay off with a genuinely heartfelt resolution.
