I’m “biast” (con): not a fan of grossout this looked to be
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Parental alert! Good Boys, a day-in-the-life comedy about a trio of grade-school besties at that difficult moment right on the cusp of puberty, is absolutely not for children. In one of the film’s wickedly amusing trailers, producer Seth Rogen — who does not appear in the film — informs his young cast that while it’s fine for them to star in the movie, they are absolutely forbidden from actually seeing the movie. The film’s ratings — R in the US, 15 in the UK — are absolutely warranted… at least by the industry’s current metrics.
And yet Good Boys is much sweeter than I was expecting, and much more surprisingly innocent in its celebration of modern ascendant manhood. This is not a crass grossout but a story that is genuinely kind to its young protagonists, and authentically understanding of their tricky positions as 21st-century kids trying to navigate a culture that doesn’t much care to protect them from growing up too soon.
I’m genuinely stunned at how much things have improved, for instance, in the decade-plus on from the distasteful celebration of toxic male teenhood that was the also–Seth Rogen–driven Superbad. Good Boys is, well, supergood. (Rogen’s recent wokeness — see also Long Shot — seems actually genuine. They can be taught!)
Three sixth-grader boys (Jacob Tremblay [The Predator, Wonder], Keith L. Williams [Sadie], and Brady Noon) spend a day bunking off school to vie against older teen girls (Midori Francis [Ocean’s Eight] and Molly Gordon [Booksmart, Life of the Party]) — whom, thankfully!, they are not middle-school-romantically interested in — in a complicated plot involving drones, the mildest sort of party drugs, and making their way toward a grade-school “kissing party.” Mostly it’s about worrying that, at the tender age of 11, one might become a “social piranha”; securing consent to engage in any kind of physical contact with another kid; and ensuring that nothing one is doing constitutes bullying. These kids today, with their concrete physical and psychological boundaries! “We’re not kids, we’re tweens!” they declare, staking a claim on a developmental phase that didn’t exist for us adults when we were kids. *lolsob*
Yes, this is a movie full of jokes about sex toys — jokes that are funny because of the boys’ ignorance about what these objects are — about looking at Internet porn — which is funny because the boys are grossed out by it — and tons of other grownup stuff… all of which is depicted with a poignancy over how charmingly naive the boys remain even as they are steeped in a culture that is overly sexualized. (They mispronounce “cum.”) The humor here is adult, but Good Boys directly addresses real things that real kids are encountering in their real lives. We might be able — just barely — to keep kids from seeing this stuff in movies, but it’s almost impossible to entirely shield them from it everywhere else.
And so Good Boys becomes a provocative and unexpectedly sly challenge to our notions of what is suitable for children, and what isn’t. The copious content related to sex and drugs — these are not oblique references, and there’s nothing implied about any of it — are no more outrageous or shocking than what real children will be encountering in their curious considerations of and explorations in the adult world that are an inevitable part of growing up.
This is a clever skewering, too — unless it’s an accidental one? — of modern Hollywood, which has no compunctions whatsoever of loading up even movies with no obvious audience beyond little kids with sexual innuendo, damaging stereotypes, and gleeful, consequence-free violence. Why is that okay for kids, but not straightforwardly examining how such attitudes impact them in the real world they live in?
Did I say this movie wasn’t for kids? Here’s a caveat: Though it might constitute an enormous embarrassment to the children, Good Boys might be a movie for openminded parents to watch with their older grade-schoolers, and to discuss the topics it broaches. If that’s too much for parents, at least adults worried about These Kids Today can take some reassurance. The good boys are handling a scary modern world in a way that’s not just pretty okay but probably downright healthy.
What an odd mix of realism and fantasy. On one hand, the boys’ naivety and ignorant boasting is both cute and true to life. On the other, many of their jokes and one-liners are stilted and clearly fabricated by an adult screenwriter and feel pantomimed and out of character (the sick burns about the parents in particular).
It feels satirical in some spots – surely fifth/sixth grade students don’t actually speak with this level of sophistication about social events – but maybe I’m just out of touch, and now that kids have smart phones, this is reality now? In some sense, it’s a parody of movies in general with the musical work-out montage and drug deal gone wrong shootout.
I liked that the two “villains” were calm (if persistent) and not very villainous, and that the boys treated them with respect, although the item the boys sell to earn some money seems like something that’s absence would be noted. It’s definitely funny and kind hearted, but I wish it picked a lane and stayed there. Half the time it’s “haha look we got these kids to read these adult jokes,” and the other half it feels like real kids going through a genuine coming of age. Both modes are funny, but they never perfectly gelled. All three of the main actors are great though.
This was a double feature with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which is more or less, IT for kids. I saw some uncomfortable parents at both screenings with small children. At Good Boys, a hilarious toddler kept saying “No, you can’t say that!” very seriously whenever the kids cursed – probably a tad young to appreciate the humor.
My question is, if a movie was made with three girls the same age, who cursed a similar amount and made sexual jokes, would there be an uproar from conservative corners? I feel as though, despite the progress that’s been made toward gender equality, there probably would be, which is funny because the two people who cursed the most frequently and creatively at school when I was a tween were both girls. None of my male friends had a tenth of the verbal dexterity of these kids.
Hah! I just realized the catchy pop song that plays during the credits (Go to Town by Doja Cat) is about cunnilingis. Nice touch, Rogan. Parents these days sure have a lot more splainin’ to do.
Seems likely.
I have a co-worker just out of high school, who went to see this with a friend of hers still in high school, and both of them were giddy enough about seeing an R-rated gross-out movie, and it made me nostalgic for the days as a 9-year-old when Dad allowed his three boys to watch the Horse prank scene of Animal House – it was the only part he *would* let us watch – on cable. Once the janitor revved up the chainsaw, he kicked us out of the room. Love you, Dad.
(MINOR SPOILERS)
No idea how true to life it is, but I loved how, as much as the kids try to be badasses, they take all the lessons they’ve learned about consent seriously. I was about ready to cry when one of them asks the girl he likes if he can kiss her before he does it.
I also kinda love how, in the epilogue scenes, we see the girl breaking up with him, because they’re kids and the point of the movie isn’t that the hero finds his forever soulmate.