Smiling Fish & Goat On Fire

1999 "two brothers, four women and the search for Magnetic Perfection"
7.4| 1h30m| en
Details

Two brothers share a house in LA's Fairfax district: Tony's a feckless actor, Chris is an accountant. Both are in relationships on rocky ground. As these emotions swirl, Tony meets his US Postal Service letter carrier, a single mom named Kathy who's come to LA from Wyoming with her daughter, a budding actress. Chris meets Anna, an Italian beauty working in the States for a few months wrangling animals on movie sets. Chris also befriends Clive, an aging and crusty man whose longing for his recently-deceased wife is a portrait of true love. Can Clive's example help Chris sort out his love life, and can Tony grow up enough to see the possibilities with Kathy and her daughter?

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Reviews

TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film
Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
FilmViewerJunkie I watched this movie tonight on the Sundance Channel and could not believe how absolutely pedestrian this film truly is. I mean come on, who can really care about whether these two guys find true love or not? I felt like I was watching a very mediocre version of an attempt at The Brothers McMullen and all of a sudden, I found myself appreciating Ed Burns alot more than I ever thought I would.The film centers around two brothers who live together in L.A. played by the Martini brothers. From the outset, we see that their lives seem to revolve around the women they're dating. But that's about where the movie stops. There doesn't seem to be any driving force for their quest for meaningful relationships, there doesn't seem to be any back history between the two - besides from the V.O. at the beginning that explains that their grandmother gave them the nicknames of Goat on Fire and Smiling Fish. And we also realize that their parents are deceased. But no family issues are ever bought up in the film, nor for that matter is any direction of any type. I'm utterly amazed that this went to Toronto and won an award. What is happening to the top festivals? Are they all being run by who you know? Because for this film to have gone to Toronto someone had to have been pulling strings. Or perhaps having "Martin Scorcese presents" is all you need. Needless to say, I would not recommend this movie to anyone. If you're interested in this kind of film, there are so many out there that blow this one out of the water. Smiling Fish? They should be swimming with the fish.
William J. Fickling This is one of those flicks that are worth catching on cable if it happens to be on when you have nothing else to do. It's not worth renting. it is a likeable and watchable film that was obviously influenced by "The Brothers McMullen," although it's not as good and, in the final analysis, is ultimately silly. It provides an excellent performance by the veteran African-American character actor Bill Henderson, who plays Clive, a stereotypical elderly font of wisdom who imparts some of that wisdom to the driven and compulsive but Ultimately Decent Chris and the frivolous and irresponsible but Ultimately Decent Tony. He also provides a 'deus ex machina' ending as well. Do you remember the Danny Glover character in "Grand Canyon?" The Henderson character is the same character 50 years older.
Big_Mase I'd heard good things about this movie from a few people so I finally got around to renting it. (Needless to say, those who recommended this movie to me have been permanently removed from my Christmas list.)If unoriginality was a communicable disease, there would be a Surgeon General warning on this movie. Lame characters sleepwalking through their hackneyed lines and contrived situations. It was like watching a headache.I wouldn't call this a 'terrible' movie, though. It's too boring to be 'terrible'. It wasn't original enough to be 'terrible'. This movie was just blah.However, if you watched the "Tao of Steve" and thought the dialogue was just too darn clever and insightful and if you just absolutely adore cliches: Then this is the movie for you.
mjq-3 These guys did a lot with a very little ($40k budget!). I saw a free screening of this last night and was really impressed. Great characters, dialogue, an easy-paced story that feels real good. Nice insights on the ever-told story of boy meets girl, boy screws things up with girl. SEE IT. TELL YOUR FRIENDS.

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