GOAT ON FIRE AND SMILING FISH

“Any improvements with your lady?” “Yes, actually. I'm in hell now.” While all men everywhere can relate to that exchange, GOAT ON FIRE AND SMILING FISH (the Festival's best-titled comedy, no doubt) carries a vibe that only Los Angeles can provide. The title characters are the Remi brothers, Chris and Tony ? the colorful nicknames courtesy of a grandmother who fancied them part Indian. The pair's now-deceased parents met in line at the Universal Studios tour, and the boys share the family house, taking vastly different approaches to life, yet both suffering the lonely-bachelor blues. Tony, a philandering would-be actor, goes through girl after girl just like he goes on fruitless movie auditions until he feels deeper attraction to a pretty single mom from Wyoming who's close to giving up on her precocious daughter's run at a screen career. Older, more serious Chris, an accountant, is whipsawed back and forth by a longtime girlfriend who weeps inexplicably during sex and insists on dramatic separations. A chance friendship with Clive, venerable veteran of old Hollywood (mauled personally by the leopard from “Bringing Up Baby!”), brings Chris into the orbit of a pretty Italian animal trainer named Anna and new possibilities. And yes, there really was a picture called “Girls' School Screamers.”