Good Boys (2019)
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Good Boys Movie Review
Good Boys is a 2019 teen comedy film directed by Gene Stupnitsky and starring Jacob Tremblay. It’s a hilarious flick.
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“I will always love you,
but I no longer like you“
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Invited to his first kissing party, 12-year-old Max asks his best friends Lucas and Thor for some much-needed help on how to pucker up. When they hit a dead end, Max decides to use his father’s drone to spy on the teenage girls next door. When the boys lose the drone, they skip school and hatch a plan to retrieve it before Max’s dad can figure out what happened.
Pretty much a ‘Superbad’ for tweens, Good Boys isn’t the most authentic film out there, but it’s different enough for dealing with such young children in such crude situations. I get that some may have a problem with that, but I never did as children around this age are nasty bastards in real life so this flick showed everything as it really is, plus they are innocent at their cores still and that led to some great humor.
I personally found the film stumbling in its third act. It was an overly emotional finale, and simply everything in it felt predictable and not as funny as the rest of the film. But the first act is excellent, and the second act is where the film shines the most in a lot of hilarious, hugely entertaining misadventures with this trio.
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Max is such a great kid and a terrific friend. I found him to be the most realistic of the bunch, and very much a cool leader in a sense. Lucas is the goofy one and the most sensitive one. He got a great arc with his parents divorcing. But Thor is absolutely my favorite. Him coming to accept himself as a singer and not a “cool” kid was an excellent arc, and he’s just the most relatable of the trio.
The love interest is passive, but the film made sure to put a feminist spin by having an evident stance on consent when it comes to kissing. Max’s father is so funny and memorable whereas the two girls who serve as bullies to the trio in a way are so much fun and they steal the show in all of their sequences.
Both Brady Noon and Keith L. William especially did a great job in their respective roles, but Jacob Tremblay is easily the best actor of the three. From ‘Room’ to ‘Wonder’ to now this film, Tremblay has proven to be one of the best child actors of all time, and I really do hope that he proves to be great as an adult too. His performance here is grounded and wonderful throughout.
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Good Boys is Seth Rogen’s debut as a producer and his trademark humor is felt through and through. Although not constantly funny, the movie is absolutely hilarious in certain scenes, especially the ones with sex toys. Those were so clever and so damn funny. The dialogue is believable, many lines are instantly memorable and the script is actually rather sophisticated for such a raunchy comedy.
Good Boys stumbles a bit in its third act, but it was terrific before that. It is very well acted across the board with Jacob Tremblay stealing the show once again. Being pretty much a ‘Superbad’ for tweens, the flick is very funny, frequently downright hilarious thanks to a clever script and fantastic dialogue with many killer lines. It may seem problematic to some, but the film is highly realistic as it portrays how tweens really act in a very amusing manner.
