Review: ‘Goat’ transcends frat boy rituals to offer a deeper meditation on the bond between brothers

While the promotional material would suggest yet another explosive depiction of the horrors of college hazing, Andrew Neel’s intense drama “Goat” proves most potent in its depiction of the fragile fraternal bond between a pair siblings.

Left traumatized by a brutal assault by two young thugs, the already insecure 19-year-old Brad (engaging up-and-comer Ben Schnetzer) is hoping to get his life back to a semblance of normalcy by enrolling in the same college as his outgoing older brother, Brett (singer Nick Jonas).

Although big-man-on-campus Brett is pleased little bro seems to be slowly coming out of his shell, he’s less thrilled about Brad pledging his Phi Sigma Mu fraternity, where he will undergo a particularly hellish Hell Week at the hands of the casually cruel Dixon (Jake Picking).

The ensuing abject humiliation, while forceful, will be unlikely to cause shock waves for those who have seen other recent hedonistic college-boy thrillers or read any number of exposés in the media.

But where the film, based on the memoir by Brad Land and adapted by Neel, David Gordon Green and Mike Roberts, makes an impact is in examining notions of contemporary masculinity and the complex dynamic between Brad and Brett, played with tender understatement by Schnetzer and Jonas.

It might have set out to convey the disturbingly sadistic nature of institutional brotherhood, but it’s the familial variety with which “Goat” explores something ultimately more compelling.

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‘Goat’

MPAA rating: R, for disturbing behavior involving hazing, strong sexual content and nudity, pervasive language, violence, alcohol abuse and some drug use

Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes

Playing: In limited release; also on VOD.

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