I’ll be the first to admit it: hearing little kids swear is
pretty funny. But the juxtaposition between naughty words and cherubic faces
will only get you so far. Luckily the new comedy “Good Boys” has more to offer
than the sight of pint-size star Jacob Tremblay dropping F-bombs, and wraps its
hijinks around a core of genuine sweetness.
Tremblay
plays Max, one-third of “The Beanbag Boys,” a title he shares with his best
buds Lucas (Keith L. Williams) and Thor (Brady Noon). The tween trio do
everything together, and when they land an invitation to their first “kissing
party” there’s a lot riding on the impression they hope to make there.
Especially for Max, who wants nothing more than to finally get the attention of
his crush, Brixlee (Millie Davis).
In an effort
to pick up some tips, the boys borrow Max’s dad’s (Will Forte) drone to spy on
their more experienced teenage neighbor and her friend (Molly Gordon and Midori
Francis). But the plan goes sideways and the drone is destroyed, forcing Max,
Lucas, and Thor to undertake an epic cross-town quest to replace it before
Max’s dad returns home from his business trip. Along the way there’s frat house
drug deals, death-defying sprints across the highway, and annoyingly
knowledgeable kid sisters. It’s an awful lot to handle for middle schoolers
already navigating the hormone-addled world of 6th grade.
“Good Boys”
is set in that nebulous period of childhood when once inseparable friends start
developing their own distinct interests outside the group, and youthful
friendships transition to the more complicated variety that come with the onset
of adolescence.
Whether
consciously or not, Max and his friends are feeling as much anxiety over their
evolving friendship as they are about their discovery of the opposite sex. The
boys are just beginning to grasp the idea that friendships change over time, a
concept which gives director Gene Stupnitsky and his
writing partner Lee Eisenberg (“Bad Teacher”) a lot of fruitful thematic
terrain to explore.
The script
gets a lot of mileage out of the boys’ general cluelessness about the
mysterious, grownup world that exists just beyond their realm of comprehension.
As much as they may pretend to know what they’re talking about, they have
fundamental misunderstanding of sex and all that goes with it. After all, this
is still a group of kids whose most fearsome opponent remains the child-proof
top on a bottle of vitamins.
The
chemistry between the three young actors is always a joy to watch. All three
leads have their moments to shine as each of the boys get arcs of their own.
Thor worries that his excitement to join the school musical will cost him a
place amongst the cool crowd, and Lucas is grappling with the news that his
parents (Retta and Lil RelHowery) are getting a divorce.
Tremblay
continues to demonstrate his versatility as a performer; even for such a young
actor, there’s no question he’s going to have a career for years to come. But
as good as he is, the film’s true breakout star is Keith L. Williams, who turns
the rule-abiding Lucas into the film’s funniest character — the kid is a master
of comedic timing and delivery.
For all the
filthy situations the Bean Bag Boys find themselves in, the film makes it clear
these are good kids at heart. Deftly weaving in ideas about consent and
bullying in among the foul-mouthed adventures, the script doesn’t have to
strain too hard to work in a few genuine messages. And while the humor and
pacing isn’t always consistent, the film’s still funny as hell.
With plenty
of good-natured fun and charming performances, “Good Boys” counters all its
raunchiness with an inherent sweetness that — beyond the gross-out jokes —
manages to say something significant about childhood friendships and the growth
that’s required to make them last.
Even when
life leads us on diverging, unpredictable paths, there remains a special,
one-of-a-kind quality to the friendships we have when we’re kids. As Richard Dreyfuss says in the final lines of the coming-of-age
classic “Stand By Me”: “I never had any friends later
on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”
This article appears in Aug 14-20, 2019.
