MOV I ES
BY MO LLY T E MP LE TO N
But Old Goats’ plot, wispy as it is, belongs to Britt
(Britton Crosley), who at the film’s start is giving a
presentation on the solo sailing trip he’s been planning.
After living for 30 years on his cluttered, beloved boat,
Britt — who’s never been as far as a neighboring state
— plans to strike out across the Pacific. He details his
preparations (which include practicing such vital skills
as scanning the horizon for debris) in a talk he gives to
an oddball, semi-impromptu men’s club that gathers
every Monday night. It’s where the three men originally
met, and is the setting of some of the film’s most
effective scenes. The largely improvised conversations
that take place during the weekly gatherings sparkle with
a peculiar appeal and a cheerily argumentative honesty.
But Britt can’t quite bring himself to leave his boat,
and his snug, compact life, at least not for the
unpredictable open sea. Crosley has a sympathetic, wary
face, and his tentative steps into a new part of the world
— life after his job; life off his boat; the newfangled
wilds of online dating — are thoughtfully presented,
with a light sense of humor. Though the production
values reflect the film’s tiny budget and the score often
seems to belong in a more whimsical film, Old Goats has
moments of subtle wisdom and is refreshingly
straightforward in its depiction of the lives of older men
(the women are mostly present as foils for the men).
There are no gimmicky, overwritten characters, no
heavily sentimental moments; instead, Guterson lets his
actors talk, and their conversational rhythms carry the
film. Nothing much happens except that the men, over all
those cups of coffee and a few glasses of wine, gently (or
not, in Bob’s case) reorder each other’s lives. Old Goats
probably won’t knock your socks off, but it’s not really
trying to; it’s a quiet testament to the endless potential for
change. ■
FRUMPY OLD MEN
Playful NW fi lm follows the lives of three ‘old goats’ on Bainbridge Island
OLD GOATS: Written, directed, filmed and edited by Taylor Guterson. Starring Bob
Burkholder, Britton Crosley, David VanderWal, Gail Shackel and Benita Staadecker.
ShadowCatcher Entertainment, 2012. Not rated. 91 minutes. 00011 .
T
aylor Guterson’s quietly likable debut feature,
Old Goats, is a very Northwestern film —
damp, relaxed, full of the mellow charms of its
Bainbridge Island setting and featuring more
cups of coffee than you can count. The film
showcases three old goats, each wrestling with
age in a specific way: Bob (Bob Burkholder), who’s
just written a memoir detailing his colorful life and
plentiful sexual conquests, can hardly hold still; he’s
constantly asking friends for a ride or offering
unsolicited advice on their futures. Dave (David
VanderWal) has just retired, and while his vision of the
rest of his life isn’t exactly precise, it’s certainly at odds
with that of his uptight (and thinly written) wife,
Crystal (Gail Shackel).
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