Artois the Goat

Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition
D: Cliff Bogart, Kyle Bogart; with Mark Scheibmeir, Sydney Andrews, Stephen Taylor Fry, Dan Braverman

Artois the Goat has a lot going for it. It’s the kind of quirky comedy that festivals love, and both directors received a Bachelor of Arts in film production from the University of Texas, which townies love. With all that in its corner, it’s nice to see that the film also turns out to be charming, slightly surreal, and hilarious. The Bogarts find a balance between keeping the laughs coming without demoting the story to afterthought. Artois is a pleasant variation on the girl vs. job theme: Do you choose what you love to do or who you love to do, or can the love of cheese-making and a significant other coexist? Toward the end of the 96-minute run time, the sight gags start to transition from clever and quirky to Family Guy-style parody, which means the difference between pure laughter and a laugh/groan combo, but eye-rolling is kept to a minimum while smiles are constant. Expect word of mouth to travel fast on this one.

Friday, March 20, 7pm, Alamo Ritz

This article appears in March 20 • 2009.

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James graduated from Columbia University in 2000 and moved to Austin a year later. Ever since, he has followed the arts and video game scene in ATX, editing and writing stories for the Chronicle along the way. Over his more than 20 years with the paper he has climbed the "corporate" ladder from lowly intern to managing editor.