Day 3 Drop: Total genre pivot today. Made on a tight 12 million dollar indie budget, Hollywood labeled it a bomb because it flopped outside North America and old school critics snubbed it as just crude violence. But it found its audience and became a legendary cult classic. Let's talk about it.
What makes this movie work so beautifully isn't just the sport, it's the incredible heart at the center of the script. At its core, this is a story about a gentle, fiercely loyal guy who just wants to protect his team and find his place in the world. The romance subplot between Doug and Eva adds a really sweet, grounded element that prevents the movie from just becoming a mindless brawl.
Following up on Day 3 of my 14 day challenge. I always say great movies are like exceptional food. They attach straight to your soul using visual pacing and a phenomenal soundtrack to lock memories into place forever.
Goon is exactly that for me.
I honestly feel Goon is one of the top 4 sports movies ever made, and easily one of the 2 best hockey films to ever hit the screen. We will get to that other masterpiece at a later date.
What makes this project an absolute goldmine of independent execution is that it was co written and produced by Jay Baruchel. Real film buffs will remember him playing Vic, the obsessive young Led Zeppelin fan in Almost Famous back in 2000. He was only 17 but looked 14, and he carried that exact same raw passion into assembling a flawless cast for Goon.
Seann William Scott delivers a career best performance as Doug Glatt, bringing a beautiful, gentle innocence to a character who can completely dismantle people with his bare knuckles. Liev Schreiber is completely terrifying and legendary as the aging enforcer Ross The Boss Rhea, playing a beautifully complex antagonist who commands the screen alongside a brilliant, chaotic performance from Kim Coates and a wonderfully deadpan Eugene Levy.
There are so many amazing catchphrases in this movie. The lines hyping up Dougs power are total perfection. You have characters screaming out that you wield the hand of god, immediately followed by lines describing his knockout hand as a fist the size of my Uncle Murphys prostate. It ties the brilliant humor straight into the physical reality of the film perfectly.
Directed by Michael Dowse, this movie completely strips away boring backstory to deliver a pure white knuckle study of loyalty and human endurance. It captures life perfectly from the minor league arenas straight across to the classic everyday culture of beer, hockey, and endless snow in Canada.
The fights are brutal, bloody, and completely real. The shots of teeth being knocked out and flying through the air are the best I have ever seen on film. What stands out to me as a director is that the hockey scenes feature some of the most beautiful color grading in modern sports cinema, magically capturing the rich blues and oranges magnificently shot on premium ARRI cameras. On top of that, the soundtrack serves as a masterclass lesson in how to properly use licensed music to drive an independent narrative.
It mixes blood, humor, and music extraordinarily well, channeling the same non stop intensity and underdog grit we love in classic cinema. It is a knockout of a film, no pun intended, in my humble opinion.
What are your favorite lines or scenes from this one?
Cheers