Retro IONCINEMA.com

TIFF 2009 Day 1: Grant Heslov’s The Men Who Stare At Goats

I had this sense that The Men Who Stare at Goats was like a first time attempt at a meal from the pages of a recipe book.

Eric Lavallée

Published on September 14, 2009

I had this sense that The Men Who Stare at Goats was like a first time attempt at a meal from the pages of a recipe book. Grant Heslov works with some zany material here, which provides some giggles, some medium sized laughs and reminds the viewer how much you can get out of a long shot, but I felt there were undercooked portions. The compact 90 minute runtime serves the parody well, especially in moments where goofiness and episodic nature of the film don’t hit the mark. One thing is for sure – I think I’m getting tired of narration via McGregor.

Related Topics:

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).