Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.

You can file this under "story so utterly ridiculous that it has to be true." THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS is one of those tales you may have heard your favorite neighborhood conspiracy theorist mutter about over the years. The idea that the U.S. Army had a small unit of men singled out because they possessed even a hint of psychic abilities seems preposterous, yet if even one such soldier proved to have such abilities, the military immediately attempting to somehow capture and weaponize these powers seems all too believable. And according to newspaper man Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor presumably standing in for source material author Jon Ronson), that's exactly what happened.

Wilton was simply hoping to feel more like a man by going to cover the Iraq War for his outlet after his marriage collapsed. He's unable to indoctrinate himself in with the embedded journalists, and he stumbles upon Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a one-time member of the First Earth Battalion, a group pulled together years ago during the Cold War, when it was rumored that the Russians were experimenting with paranormal powers as part of their military operations. Much of the film goes back and forth between Cassady and Wilton barely escaping death in Iraq (perhaps because of Cassady's finely tuned abilities or maybe it's just dumb luck) and flashback to Cassady under the command of Bill Django (Jeff Bridges with a rope-like ponytail). Other members of this psychic army include Kevin Spacey as the envious Larry Hooper, whose meager powers don't come close to Cassady's, and the always reliable Stephen Lang as Brigadier General Dean Hopgood, who is so eager to possess these abilities that he concentrates with all his might and runs full force into walls, hoping to pass through them. What's even more incredible about the First Earth group is that their mission, as Django saw it, was not to win a war but to end all wars. As you might guess, no matter how successful this group was, it was doomed to failure.

Director Grant Heslov (who produced and co-wrote GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK with Clooney, and got two Oscar nominations as a result) has constructed one of the decade's great farces, but he's done so by simply laying out the facts in such interesting and entertaining ways that the humor just jumps off the screen. When Django goes missing, Cassady is called out of retirement to find him, but what he discovers along the way is something twisted, a perversion of the principles that Django instilled in his men. There is an absolute joy in watching George Clooney play a role like this, in which he is required to play a ridiculous man who takes everything he does with the utmost seriousness. I've seen both films coming out this fall starring Clooney (the other being UP IN THE AIR), and I can say without hesitation that in the one coming out in December, he gives us the greatest performance of his career. Without realizing it perhaps, it's the performance he's been building toward all these years. In THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, Clooney gives us the funniest work he's ever done. He's working decidedly against type. Gone is the charm and confidence; it's been replaced by nervous ticks, paranoia, abrasive personality, and a kind of delusional tone that is so unlike anything he's done to date. And he plays it like he's been doing it his whole life, utterly convincing.

Sometimes the comedy is subtle, and other times, well, it's not. Still, one of the great running gags involves the members of the psychic army referring to themselves as "Jedi Warriors." When Cassady explains this to Wilton, you can't help but laugh when Ewan (Obi Wan) McGregor asks "What's a Jedi Warrior?" The line wouldn't even be in the screenplay if McGregor wasn't the one delivering it. And for those of you who have altered your lives over the years to watch THE BIG LEBOWSKI a few more times a day, you're going to be in hog heaven watching Bridges play the closest thing to "The Dude" that he's played since that movie.

I will admit, the film's final act--when Clooney and McGregor finally get the entire picture of what has happened to the psychic battalion project--is not as strong as the rest of the film, if only because the reality of the situation is pretty grim and the laughs essentially cease for an extended period. Luckily for us, the collected talent on display in this film pulls us through to the end and leaves us with a wholly satisfying film-going experience. For most of THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, the laughs come at a dizzying pace. What's more, the film clocks in at just barely over 90 minutes, making the entire experience of watching it feel like a fucked-up fever dream that reveals to us a world where things that shouldn't happen do so with alarming regularity, and rarely with the intended results. Despite its weakened ending, I truly loved this smart, venomous work that reminds me that George Clooney is an actor who should never be underestimated.

-- Capone
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