Review of Goats (2012) by Walter M — 17 Oct 2013

In "Goats," 15-year old Ellis(Graham Phillips, of "The Good Wife) is leaving home for the first time to attend a prep school back east and will not be around anymore to do the bookkeeping for his mom(Vera Farmiga). What she is really angry about is that this might bring him into the orbit of the estranged baby daddy(Ty Burrell), but at least she has Bennet(Justin Kirk, always where the pot is) to keep her company. And at least Goat Man(David Duchovny) promises to send Ellis some weed which would not be such a big problem if Ellis and his roommate Barney(Nicholas Lobue) were not caught smoking by the track coach(Anthony Anderson) who in turn blackmails Ellis into trying out for the team.

In the entry in the dictionary for the word scattershot, there should be a copy of the movie poster of "Goats, as aimless it can be, emphasizing the strange places some of us have to go for our Vera Farmiga fix. So, maybe you can't make a very good movie involving goats. The important thing is the movie is also brimming with non sequiturs which in the right place, namely here, can be sort of fun, as the movie follows a teenager coming of age and choosing who he wants to be while being torn between two very different lifestyles. And it does not hurt that David Duchovny gives a surprisingly relaxed performance while Keri Russell proves that "The Americans" is no fluke.