Goon

Goon is the story of Doug Glatt, a down-on-his-luck bouncer, who’s been touched by the fist of God. Upon discovering both his right hook and skates, he joins a hockey team destined for the cellar and inspires them into the playoffs.
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Acclaimed maverick Michael Dowse (FUBAR, FUBAR 2, It’s All Gone Pete Tong) returns to the Festival with his latest, Goon, a raucous, hilarious take on Canada’s one true national obsession — hockey — and the divisive topic of violence in the game. Co-written by and starring Jay Baruchel (The Trotsky, Tropic Thunder) and boasting a truly great cast including Seann William Scott, Nicholas Campbell, Liev Schrieber, Alison Pill, Kim Coates, Eugene Levy, and Marc-Andre Grondin -- Goon is the Canadian comedy counterpart to Jimi Hendrix’s version of the “The Star Spangled Banner”: sacreligious, twisted and, somehow, perversely patriotic.

Programmer's Note
Acclaimed maverick Michael Dowse (FUBAR, FUBAR II, It’s All Gone Pete Tong) returns to the Festival with Goon, a raucous, hilarious take on Canada’s one true national obsession — hockey — co-written by and starring Jay Baruchel (The Trotsky, Tropic Thunder). Riffing on the 1977 hoser classic Slap Shot, Dowse’s latest deals with a con­flict every hockey fan — and virtually every Canadian, hockey fan or not — has an opin­ion on: violence in the game.

The hero is Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott), a gentle giant who’s lethal with his fists but reluctant to use them. That is, until he goes to a hockey game and flattens a visiting player who charges into the stands spouting homophobic slurs. The next day, while appearing on a web chat show hosted by his best friend (Baruchel, at his foul­mouthed, scatological best), Doug is scouted by the coach of the local minor-league team (Nicholas Campbell, in a spectacularly hilarious turn). It doesn’t matter that he can barely skate. Doug is wanted for another reason.

The coach gets Doug a gig playing for another team coached by his brother (Kim Coates, who’s as hilarious as Campbell). Doug’s job? Beat up anyone who gets near Xavier Laflamme (C.R.A.Z.Y.’s Marc-André Grondin), a hotshot player afraid to touch the puck since a devastating hit from legend­ary enforcer — and Doug’s idol — Ross “The Boss” Rhea (Liev Schreiber). When Rhea is demoted to the same league, it’s clear they will have to take one another on.

Dowse and Baruchel don’t skimp on the violence or ignore our appetite for it. In fact, they present it with a near-baroque comic flair. (The fight sequences oscillate between consciously ludicrous, hyper-realist riffs on the fight scenes in Raging Bull and the worst nightmare of anti-violence advocates.) Eva (Alison Pill), the girl Doug falls head-over­heels in love with, is initially drawn to him because she digs hockey, especially “the vio­lence and the beer.” How is it that deferential Canadians have a seemingly unquenchable thirst for blood?

Boasting a truly great cast, Goon is the Canadian comedy counterpart to Jimi Hendrix’s version of the “The Star-Spangled Banner”: sacrilegious, twisted and somehow perversely patriotic.