A film its own stars wouldn’t be able to see at the cinema, Good Boys is a rude, crude, R-rated comedy about three 12-year-old boys who make a series of increasingly bad decisions.
After being invited to his first kissing party, Max (Jacob Tremlay) is panicked because he doesn’t know how to kiss. So he and best friends Thor (Brady Moor) and Lucas (Keith L. Williams) borrow Max’s dad’s forbidden drone to spy on their high school neighbour making out. But before they know it, the drone is destroyed, and they’re forced to skip school to try and replace it before Max’s dad gets back from a business trip, otherwise Max will be grounded and miss the kissing party altogether.
Mixing the coming-of-age tropes of Superbad and Stand By Me with the pure mayhem of The Hangover, Good Boys plays it younger and the kids’ innocence gives endless opportunities for fun. Crucially though it’s all in good spirit, and Good Boys never makes fun of its three leads; the stars feels innocent despite what’s going on on-screen, and you are always laughing with the boys, not at them.
In the same way Superbad became a cult classic back in 2007, Good Boys is primed to do very same. It’s smartly written, incredibly funny, and stylish without ever trying too hard, as the kids deliver faultless performances across the board. They each show such personality while so much is going on around them, so much that they don’t necessarily understand.
You won’t be surprised this is from the stable of producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, though director/co-writer Gene Stupnitsky, and co-writer/producer, Lee Eisenberg, also explain the measure and calm brought to such a raucus affair. Both are best known for their work writing and directing on The Office, and co-creating the (excellent and sadly short-lived) Hello Ladies for HBO.
Good Boys shares a lot of similarities (and a cast member) with Booksmart, another SXSW favourite this year, but while this one is more of an all out comedy it still hits on a few deeper levels too. It’s something you could watch over and over again and the jokes won’t get old, Good B oys is a film that’s far better than it ever had the right to be, Superbad for a new generation, even if it’s stars won’t be able to watch it for a few years yet.