When I read that Yahoo! had the exclusive trailer for David Duchovny’s latest movie, Goats, my first thought was, “What the hell was the last movie that he was in?” Sure enough, as he’s been starring as Hank Moody in the delightful Californication, Duchovny has been on a little big screen hiatus. Goats marks the end of that dry spell, and it looks like he picked an absolute doozie of a quirky character to come back with.
Duchovny plays Goat Man, a bearded hippie who lives in a family’s pool house and walks around with goats. It’s pretty simple, sure, but apparently much deeper.
In Goats, Ellis (Graham Phillips) is the most adult member of his eccentric family at 15 years old. 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.
Sounds… interesting. But hell, what do I know? I actually enjoyed Evolution, and that movie was a dud. In fact, here’s a shocking revelation – did you know that Evolution – the alien movie with Duchovny, Orlando Jones, and Julianne Moore – cost $80-freaking-million dollars to make? That just seems like way too much to me. But even stranger, it somehow ended up grossing $98 million, thanks to $60 million in foreign box office earnings.
I guess what I’m trying to say is someone should investigate DreamWorks for trafficking drugs.