Goat

Description

If you’re going to pledge a fraternity, Phi Sigma Mu is your first choice—the alpha Greeks at a Cincinnati-based college throw the wildest parties and get the best girls, they say. For freshman Brad (Ben Schnetzer), who’s just suffered a traumatic assault at the hands of some townies, the idea of having a band of brothers watching his back is comforting; since his literal brother Brett (pop star Nick Jonas) is a Sigma bigwig, he’s practically a shoo-in. To gain entry to this Valhalla of debauchery, however, would-be members must go through a brutal hazing ritual involving toxic amounts of alcohol consumption, dangerous physical endurance tests and the sort of humiliation designed to destroy fragile psyches. And as Brad and his fellow “goats” suffer through life-threatening tests to see whether they’re “man” enough to join, the question is not whether he’ll crack but when. A damning indictment on today’s free-for-all fraternity system and society’s winner-take-all notions of masculinity, writer-director Andrew Neel’s adaptation of Brad Land’s memoir is a harrowing trip through a beer-soaked, broken-spirited hell. From its opening shot of shirtless dudes engaging in a primitive display of aggressiveness, Goat goes for the gut and never lets up. Featuring bravura performances from Schnetzer and Jonas, this cri de coeur on collegiate bad behavior will have viewers thinking twice about the morality of these “pillars” in our institutes of higher learning. —David Fear

Film Details