Sundance. Goliath.

"Goliath, co-directed by brothers David and Nathan Zellner, is an experimental film in appearance, tempo and most importantly spirit," writes Steve Ramos at indieWIRE. "Goliath is a wonderfully strange movie, experimental realism at its best that near its end attempts to be ordinary. This raises one question for the talented Zellner Brothers: What's so bad about being strange?"

"It's totally self-assured in its idea of comedy and doesn't back down for a second," writes Don R Lewis in Film Threat. "Goliath isn't for everyone but if you want to laugh and see something completely different in a comedy, you can do no better than a Zellner Brothers film and Goliath fits the bill.... With three prior shorts at the festival, they return with a feature that is simultaneously deadpan, stark, strange, realistic, and amusing. Goliath further establishes their comedic talent and distinctive vision."

Updated through 2/3.

"Brother filmmaking teams abound: the Maysles, Coens, Hugheses, Wachowskis. With the Duplass and Zellner brothers, who specialize in micro-budget indie comedies that mine humor from the banal, dreary and heartbreaking, Austin lays claim to two of the funniest, most frugal and most prolific of these blood-bound couples." And the Austin American-Statesman's Chris Garcia talks with all four of them. Via Matt Dentler.

Online listening tips. James Rocchi talks with the Zellners for Cinematical; so, too, does Kevin Buist at the SpoutBlog.

Update, 2/3: Goliath is "full of the sort of comedy that springs from sincere, writhe-in-your seat discomfort," writes James Rocchi at Cinematical. "It also manages to be profane yet profound - when [David] Zellner explains to his ex the exact physical details of a moment of infidelity, he's simultaneously clueless, shameless and truly sorry.... It feels less like a great dramatic performance than a great portrait of a documentary subject - which, of course, means it's a great performance."

Posted by dwhudson at February 2, 2008 1:51 PM