The Men Who Stare at Goats

An emotionally wounded reporter (Ewan McGregor) gets himself stationed in Iraq after 9/11 and winds up traveling through the desert with an alleged former psychic soldier (George Clooney, in typical genius form) on a black ops mission. Clooney’s soldier was part of a new age squad that tried peaceful means to fight wars but wasn’t necessarily against staring at a goat until its heart stopped. One of the year’s funniest movies, it not only features a hilarious Clooney, but Jeff Bridges as a longhaired military man and shaman, and Kevin Spacey as a jealous fellow psychic soldier. The movie falls safely on the bizarre side, claiming some of its story is true, not unlike George Clooney’s directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Grant Heslov, who worked with Clooney as an actor and writer on Good Night and Good Luck, directs.