Friday Films: GOAT

A film screening of GOAT (2026); 1 hr. 40 m; Rated PG; closed captioning available.

A small goat with big dreams gets a once-in-a-lifetime shot to join the pros and play roarball, a high-intensity, co-ed, full-contact sport dominated by the fastest, fiercest animals in the world.

"The lush laidback dystopia of “GOAT” is bracing because it feels so novel, and inviting because it feels like home. And that’s part of what makes the movie, directed by Tyree Dillihay (with Adam Rosette as co-director), a go-for-your-dream fairy tale that we haven’t seen before. ... The different roarball stadiums are like fantasy landscapes (in one the game floor is built over bubbling magma, in another it’s made of ice), and though Will’s teammates may sound like the usual menagerie of animated critters, Tyree Dillihay, directing his first feature, gives each of them little curlicues of insanity that pop, whether it’s Olivia, the ostrich, burying her head in the earth to express her despair, or the way that Modo (Nick Kroll), the team’s anarchic Komodo dragon, with his pierced nose and tongue and Cookie Monster-on-fire personality, has jaws drenched in saliva." - Owen Gleiberman, Varsity