Black comedies are like sex—they’re desired, they’re accessible, but the really good ones are just darn hard to find. Well, at least when the Coen Brothers are not around. So we should all be glad with the arrival of those goat-staring men and their delirious eye-opening story because it’s wildly quirky, wacky, and most importantly, true. I mean, how could you possibly make this up?

Based on British journalist Jon Ronson’s nonfiction book with the same title, “The Men Who Stare at Goats” tells us upfront that “more of this is true than you would believe.” An innocent-looking Ewan McGregor plays the not-so-bright journalist Bob Wilton from Michigan, who goes to Iraq on a whim in 2003 to cover the war, stumbling across private contractor Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a self-claimed psychic spy who was mentioned by a man Wilton has interviewed before on an unlikely story of psychic powers. Then it flashes back to the 1980s, when Vietnam-veteran-turned-hippie Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) convinces the US Army to set up a secret New-Age unit where he trains the soldiers—through meditating and dancing (yup!)—into warrior monks, known as “the Jedi,” who are supposed to battle terrorist enemies with non-violent paranormal powers which include mind-reading, cloud-bursting, remote-viewing, walking through walls and above all, killing goats merely by staring at them. And it all goes well, till the ambitious, envious newcomer Larry Hooper (a deadpan Kevin Spacey, playing a prick, again) ruins everything.

Delving into the US Army’s past research and explorations of applying psychological and new wave techniques to the war on terror, “Goats” is an anti-war apolitical farce filled with spoofs, gags and whole lotta goats. Director Grant Heslov, once nominated for two Oscars for “Good Night, and Good Luck,” is a long-time Clooney collaborator. And Clooney, wearing a hilarious moustache, delivers the best comedic performance of his career; while Bridges, the ever brilliant his Dudeness himself, dressed like a shaman instead of a hobo this time, shows us that typecasting can be the greatest thing ever. However, while the film keeps a certain decency by not going too far, the director and the cast seem to have gotten too carried away with the whole happy-druggy-New-Age-carnival scene that they forgot to pursue a further profundity that is well needed, making it lack a certain acerbity and sharpness.

Okay, so when “Jarhead” meets “The Big Lebowski”, the result is not necessarily “Dr. Strangelove”. But who cares? We miss laughing hard in the cinema, and Boston’s “More than a Feeling” sounds so right in the Middle East desert.

4/5 Stars by Penny Zhou.

(USA) Directed by Grant Heslov. Starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. Category IIA, 94 minutes. Opens Jan 14