A Must See With Identity Issues

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2010)

I love the employment of flashbacks. They're an efficient way to develop both character and storyline. Have you noticed the mocumentary format becoming increasingly popular in television shows (The Office, Modern Family, Arrested Development, Parks And Recreation, Family Guy)? One of the major advantages of such a format is that flashbacks are easily incorporated into the plot and I believe this has lead to much of their success. The Men Who Stare at Goats certainly takes advantage of this new technique while incorporating superior acting and story development.
One of the things I really loved about this movie, besides the closeness I felt with its characters, was its oblivious comedic slant. A few times I wasn't sure if I should have been laughing, but I didn't care because it was too damn funny. The movie teetered between being funny and knowing it, and being funny and not knowing it. Sometimes the movie knew it was a comedy, and other times it thought it was a war based conspiracy film. But for different reasons, it was always funny and entertaining.