Coastal View News
The joke about “Good Boys” is that none of the main
characters are old enough to see the movie. There’s lots of cussing. It’s
crude. There’s sex and drugs and alcohol, and plenty more talk about these
for-mature-audiences-only topics. It has a well-earned R-rating.
But how else is one to give an unvarnished portrayal of a
gaggle of 6th-grade boys? They cuss because it’s new, and cool, and
what big kids do … though, hilariously, they don’t really know how to cuss, and
they don’t know how to pronounce the more salacious words they use, and they hardly
even understand their racy topics of conversation. Like a pubescent boy’s
overgrown feet, their minds are coming of age a little more quickly than they
can handle with any kind of coordination.
Max (Jacob Tremblay) is a tad more mature than the
others. The other two members of the friend group—Lucas (Keith L. Williams) and
Thor (Brady Noon)—are mostly posers. The biggest difference is that, while they
all talk a lot about sex, only Max actually has the raging hormones to back it
up.
And the object of those hormones, and Max’s undying affection,
is Brixlee (Millie Davis). He doesn’t really know her. But he’s way into her.
So, naturally, he makes her something in art class, consults with the necessary
intermediaries, and works the middle-school back channels to set up an
all-important rendezvous with Brixlee.
Luckily, a “kissing party” is coming up. So Max sees his
opening.
Meanwhile Lucas and Thor have their own stuff to deal
with. Lucas’ parents are getting divorced. Thor, despite his rough exterior, is
hardly winning the admiration of school bullies, and he feels that
all-too-common pressure to be something other than what he wants to be (which
is a Broadway-type singer).
Still, despite their mix of pre-teen woes, they all end
up getting wrapped up in Max’s plot. Max realizes he doesn’t know how to kiss.
Which, you know, is basically essential to kissing parties. But instead of just
Googling the dang thing, the three boys use Max’s dad’s drone to spy on some teenagers
who, they figure, must be kissing.
They aren’t. But the teens do notice the drone. And then
things spiral out of control (including the drone). Now Max and Co. have a new
problem—getting busted by Max’s dad for quasi-larceny and full-on destruction
of property.
So they have to get a drone. Which means they have to
somehow get to the mall on their own. While also avoiding the pissed off teens.
And while still making the necessary preparations for the kissing party. Oh, and
also while being cool—they have to be cool as well.
“Good Boys” delivers a minor miracle. For it portrays
middle school boys in a way that more-or-less rings true, and yet also,
somehow, makes them endearing—even, dare I say it, loveable. What really is the
worst demographic in the known universe comes out looking, not just human, or
understandably vulnerable, but also kind of sweet.
The movie is funny, too. And smartly funny. It’s not just
“That little kid just said the F-word, oh my,” funny. It has an extra layer of
wit and biting sarcasm, which, coupled with the fun (if not groundbreakingly innovative)
situational humor, makes for a smile-inducing 90 minutes.
“Good Boys” does not have grand ambitions. It tries to be
charming—and succeeds—but not sappy, overly sweet, or even particularly
emotionally punchy. It takes the kids, but not itself, seriously. And it
succeeds within these limits.
So if you’re at least five years older than the kids in
this movie, or have a parent or guardian lax enough to take you, it’s worth a
good time.
