Cinema: Goon
Posted on 5th Jan 12 by Brian Lloyd | 
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‘…loud-mouthed, funny… and doesn’t lack for colourful language…’
Some films are best done when they are done without being pretentious. In other words, if there is no need to be anything other than what it is, the film will ultimately work for the better. With GOON, it is an ice hockey comedy starring Seann William Scott. And that’s it. It’s not trying to speak about the fall of masculinity in the modern age, it’s not trying to satirise the American fascination with bloodsport and it’s not attempting to revolutionise cinema and the craft of filmmaking. In some cases, it can feel lazy and not trying or attempting make a bigger splash. That being said, it can be better if a film is trying nothing other than what it is – no layers, no sub-text or over-reaching. With GOON, it is trying to tell a simple story, the filthiest way possible. And, surprisingly, it works.
Seann William Scott is Doug Glatt, an underachieving bouncer who finds him inextricably thrust into the world of semi-professional ice hockey. However, it’s nothing to do with his skating skills or his strategic mind. It’s down to his fists and his ability to deliver sickeningly captured punches. The film follows a very straightforward plot with the usual sports film tropes, such as the Training Montage, the Slow-Mo With Classical Music, the Triumphant Comeback and so on. Where GOON wins people over in the fact that there is nothing satirical about ice hockey and its players and fans. It is played reasonably straight, without playing up the fact that the players are thick as pig-shit or that the game is bereft of subtlety or grace. The script is filled with expletives and it’s easy knowing that it was penned by Eavan Goldberg, he of PINEAPPLE EXPRESS and KNOCKED UP fame. Like KNOCKED UP, there’s enough warmth and humility throughout the film that gives the film a quality that you wouldn’t initially think it would have. Seann William Scott plays the lovable dimwit easily and is genuinely likable throughout the film. He knows, perhaps by now, that he will never win an Oscar for his performances, and yet, it never feels like he phones in a performance. Jay Baruchel, who co-wrote the script, is his foul-mouthed cheerleader and confidant and acts as sidekick with relative ease. Alison Pill, previously seen in SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, here plays Scott’s love interest with decent performances. An extended cameo by Eugene Levy as Scott’s disapproving father is interesting, but somehow needless in the context of the film. The strangest casting in this film, however, is Liev Schreiber. Playing the polar opposite to Scott’s doe-eyed rookie, Schreiber gives the film a weight that it would have lacked without. With surprising comedic timing, Schreiber works well with the script and, in one scene, blatantly apes Robert DeNiro in HEAT with a face-off with Seann William Scott over coffee at three in the morning.
The direction of the film is reasonably plain, there are no great flourishes here – though the fight scenes are visceral enough to make you recoil in disgust now and then when needed. As well, the pacing is quick enough in that no particular scene feels laboured or drawn out and the film moves with a steady rhythm. The film doesn’t necessarily require a knowledge, or indeed, an interest of ice-hockey. The film features it, of course, but it’s rarely central to any particular scene. In fact, Michael Dowse, the director, portrays the sport of ice hockey as something closer to street-fighting on ice. The film has no deeper layer, no attempts at cinematic glory or dramatic sheen to any of it. GOON is loud-mouthed, funny and enjoyable to watch and doesn’t lack for colourful language. It’s MIGHTY DUCKS by way of EASTBOUND & DOWN, but with a lot more likability to it.
DROP-D RATING: 7 / 10
Tags: Goon, Seann William Scott
