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Blu-Ray : A Rental at Best
Ranking:
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Release Date: September 11th, 2012 Movie Release Year: 2012

Goats

Overview -

At 15 years old, Ellis (Graham Phillips) is the most adult member of his eccentric family. His mom (Vera Farmiga) is a New Age hippie that spends all of her time working on self-help rituals with her hustler boyfriend (Justin Kirk). His dad (Ty Burrell) left home years ago and is more focused on his new wife (Keri Russell) and family. And then there’s Goat Man (David Duchovny), the goat-herding sage who has lived in their pool house since Ellis was a child, teaching him the meaning of stability, commitment, and expanding one's mind. When Ellis decides to leave Tucson to go to the same East Coast prep school that his father went to, he easily assimilates to his new environment - even gaining the attention of a local girl (Dakota Johnson). But as he re-connects with his estranged father, he finds Goat Man’s influence and his life out West thrown into stark contrast.

OVERALL:
A Rental at Best
Rating Breakdown
STORY
VIDEO
AUDIO
SPECIAL FEATURES
Tech Specs & Release Details
Technical Specs:
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Video Resolution/Codec:
1080p/AVC MPEG-4
Length:
93
Aspect Ratio(s):
2.39:1
Audio Formats:
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles/Captions:
English SDH and Spanish
Special Features:
Trailer
Release Date:
September 11th, 2012

Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take

Ranking:

I see plenty of celebrities at Sundance each year, but I rarely get star-struck. I don't share this to brag, only to illustrate a point. This year I saw quite a few celebrities walking the streets and darting in and out of hotel conference rooms as they were meeting with the media. Emily Blunt, Andie MacDowell, Malin Ackerman, Ron Livingston, Ty Burrell, Mark Duplass, Rashida Jones, and Vera Farmiga, just to name a few. However, there was only one celebrity that gob-smacked me when I realized I was in the same room as him, standing just four or five feet away. It was David Duchovny. From 'X-Files' to 'Californication,' Duchovny has been one of my favorite actors for years. The point I'm getting at is the fact that the movie Duchovny was starring in, called 'Goats', was getting pretty lackluster word-of-mouth at the festival. My bias for Duchovny tried to block out the negativity. I really wanted to like 'Goats', simply because I loved Duchovny. It didn't happen.

'Goats' is a cut-and-paste coming-of-age story that relies far too heavily on the tropes associated with the genre. It meanders its way through the story of Ellis (Graham Phillips), who is another casualty of the rich kid syndrome. Ellis lives a privileged life with his mother (Vera Farmiga) who has a trust account. Only Ellis' problems are laid on far too thick to be believable. His mother is a new-age screwball who buries herself in the advice of healers, but doesn't pay attention to her own son. Ellis' father (Ty Burrell) moved away after the divorce and is only referred to by his mother as "Fucker Frank." Ellis' only friend in the world is Goat Man (David Duchovny). An earthy hippie who grows pot in his mother's backyard and goes on goat treks from time to time. Ellis loves pot and goats, so this friendship works rather well. Ellis ends up getting accepted to a prestigious prep school where we soon meet more rich kids with similar parental issues.

The problem with 'Goats' is that it plays out like a dreadfully underdeveloped young adult novel. There's always this feeling that the movie is hinting at a deeper inspection of Ellis' feelings and circumstances, but the movie never gets there. It never delves into anything deeper than a reunion Ellis has with his long lost father. It's a surface-dwelling film that has potential that never gets mined. Maybe in the hands of a more formidable director like Wes Anderson or even Marc Webb, this movie could find its spirit and embrace what it is. Instead, director Christopher Neil has crafted a depthless movie with shallow characters and a story that slowly ambles down the road with nowhere to go. It's the typical film festival movie that draws big audiences because of its gigantic ensemble cast, then leaves everyone feeling slightly disappointed.


I really wanted to like 'Goats' because of Duchovny. My strong partiality towards him carried me through the first half of the movie hoping that it would get better; it never really did.

'Goats' misses opportunity after opportunity to create a well-rounded coming-of-age drama. Its character remain underdeveloped until the very end. There are numerous story threads – like Ellis' would-be romance at boarding school or Goat Man's affair with the girl next door – that seem thrown in to fill up time. Minnie Driver even shows up for a five-second scene for no other reason other than for people in the audience to say, "Hey, is that Minnie Driver?"

Much like the poor goats, the movie easily loses its way and never finds the trail leading it back to relevancy. There's a touching story about a lost teenager buried somewhere in this material. This just isn't it.


The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

'Goats' comes to Blu-ray on a 25GB disc. Image Entertainment has packaged it in a standard Blu-ray keepcase. It's coded as for Region A.


Video Review

Ranking:

Shot digitally, 'Goats' has that all-too-familiar depthless digital look to it. Don't get me wrong, the picture is crisp and free of any unsightly blemishes, it's just that the non-filmic look of the movie gives way to flatter blacks and some unforgiving shadows here and there.

Sporting a warm color palette, like many dramedies, 'Goats' presents pleasingly nice colors from the earthy browns and yellows of the Arizona desert to the rich green hills of Ellis' boarding school back east. Detail also looks great. That's where the crispness of the picture comes in. Everything from the brickwork on the school to the wispy hairs of Duchovny's hippie beard is visible and easily discernible. I thought the night scenes lacked adequate punch though. Shadows featured a tad too much crush for my liking. Is it a bad presentation? Not by a long shot. It's just not demo quality, but you weren't really expecting that going in right?


Audio Review

Ranking:

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is a dialogue-heavy track given that the movie is dialogue-centric. The good thing is that all of the voices, whether whispered or not, are completely intelligible throughout the movie. There's never any trouble hearing what the characters have to say. I was a little surprised at the amount of surround sound activity that was in this movie though. Ellis' busy school features a lot of rear involvement as students mill about in the halls. The airport provides a natural sounding listening environment as announcements echo through the rear speakers like they should. Sounding like they're just out of reach. The surrounding Arizona wilderness if full of crickets chirping, birds singing, and goats bleating. For a talkative movie the rear channels were engaged much of the movie creating a well-rounded listening environment. LFE is light except for a couple instances of bass being needed for the soundtrack. All in all, it's an impressive sound mix for a movie focused on conversations.


Special Features

Ranking:
  • Deleted Scenes (HD, 1 min.) — There are a couple scenes here. The only one worth anything is a scene between Goat Man and Aubrey which fleshes out that relationship a tiny bit more, but not much.
  • Moments: The Making of 'Goats' (HD, 11 min.) — A standard EPK-style making-of featurette that will probably bore you as much as the movie did.
  • The Mailman's Lament (HD, 2 min.) — They're really scraping the barrel for special features here as actor Geoff Ellsworth, who plays the mailman, delivers a monologue about the mailman's life.
  • Home Movies (SD, 3 min.) — A full version of the "home movies" that play during the credits with Goat Man and Ellis' mother Wendy, playing with Ellis when he was a baby.
  • Trailer (HD, 2 min.) — The theatrical trailer is included.

'Goats' never really figures out the kind of story it wants to tell. It's all over the place, trying to fit every familiar face into the story with meaningful storylines. In the end it spreads itself way too thin and winds up being about nothing in particular. I couldn't get past its slow, meandering ways even in spite of my love for David Duchovny. However, if you're interested, the audio and video on this Blu-ray are pretty well done. It's a decent rental if you're looking for something a little off the beaten path.