Michael Ledo
The Amazon plot is as follows: "After being assaulted, Brad Land (Ben Schnetzer) starts college ready to move on. His brother, Brett (Nick Jonas), is in a frat that Brad wants to join. Brett has concerns. While pledging, each new humiliating event threatens to destroy their relationship." The film is about the brother's relationship. Theme: Real brother, good. Frat brother, bad. Home is where the hurt is.Brett helps Brad get closure. I felt I missed the whole point of the film as it ended without giving me any real closure, leaving me hanging out in a field of nightmares. Supposedly inspired by real events, i.e. hazing still goes on, even though everyone and their mum have rules against it.Guide: F-word, sex, nudity.
bandw
This is the story of the experiences of two brothers who join the same college fraternity, one year apart. I think that it did not take much talent to come up with the story. Start off with a violent beating of the younger brother to get the audience's attention, emphasize the hazing events during hell week, toss in some sibling interactions, and end with the fallout from a tragic consequence of the hazing. The acting is pedestrian and there is such a lack of depth to the characters that it is difficult to care about them. The deepest conversation goes along the lines of, "Hey man, how's it going?" followed by "Fine."The "based on true events" comment at the beginning does not add much value, since what is presented does not go beyond stereotypical material.Several years ago I read the book "Goat Brothers" by Larry Colton. I thought this movie might be based on that book, but, aside from the one small part of the book dealing with hell week, they are miles apart. The book traces the lives of five fraternity brothers over a period of twenty-five years and, opposed to "Goat," you wind up really knowing them.
EZ123
This film gets 90-percent of the way there. As a story of the relationship between two brothers, during a stressful time in the life of one, it's poignant and wonderful. To a discerning eye Goat's setting in a fraternity will come across, through most of the film, merely as set dressing for the underlying story, rather than an indictment of fraternity life generally. And at that level it works beautifully. Unfortunately, the last twenty minutes of the film flips into an anti-fraternity rant that, while not exactly coming out of nowhere, could have been better left on the cutting room floor. Nonetheless, Goat is a powerful and emotional film that, in this reviewer's mind, is touching, as opposed to disturbing as some have called it. The character development in Goat, beyond the two brothers, is minimal but the level of vague ambiguity it creates works perfectly in helping focus attention on their relationship.Nick Jonas' acting chops were a wonderful surprise. Ben Schnetzer and Gus Halper also deliver unrelentingly powerful performances.James Franco's sudden, albeit brief, appearance, is a little out-of-place and the presence of his character somewhat unrealistic.
Gordon-11
This film tells the story of a young man who gets brutally attacked by two strangers. He then goes to college, joins a fraternity house, and gets transformed into a different person.There has been a lot of films that portrays fraternity houses to be super fun, but finally there is a film that shows that fraternity houses may not be as rosy as it appear. The story focuses on the initiation week, where new recruits are humiliated and even tortured. It is scary to see what happens in the film, even though the tone of the film is not too dark. The level of subhuman behaviour is terrifying, because the abuse is legitimised by "tradition"."Goat" tells a compelling story of abuse, abused and abuser. It lets people reflect on what is right and what is wrong. Let's hope this film will find more audience.
AD
