Good Boys

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Interestingly enough, it took this movie to realize that there really hasn't been much comedy going on for 2019. It might blend with things like action or horror, but for just a straight up comedy, the selection has been minimal. So, I thank the good Lord that this movie came along, 'cause it gave me something to laugh at, regarding simple, laid back, straight up comedy.

Many would probably compare it to the likes of 'Superbad', calling it a "junior version of". While that is not entirely untrue, this one pulls the crudeness back just a little bit, and instead of a raunchy high school comedy, we get a look at what (some of) our kids might be up to. It gets bad, but I never once got a tone of "shock value" from it. For example there isn't a whole sequence of creative phallic sketches thrown in for some low-brow humour. Hell, even the trailer has the kids say that 'Superbad' is kinda dated with its ideas. This is more just kids doing stupid and naive things, and it's a laugh all the way through.

The story focuses on three boys; Max (Jacob Tremblay), Lucas (Keith L. Williams), and Thor (Brady Noon - and yes, Thor is his real name). Upon learning that Max sipped a beer, the most popular kid in school, Soren (Isaac Wang) invites him to a kissing party. Max is fairly insistent that Lucas and Thor get to come with, so Soren allows it.

The boys now have 24 hours to learn how to kiss. It's not initially a big deal, until they use Max's drone to spy on his nymphomaniac neighbor, trying to watch how kissing is done. Of course, this leads to nothing good, and the rest of the film takes a turn as the kids end up accidentally carrying drugs, needing a new drone, and having to make deals with said neighbour, Hannah (Molly Gordon) and her best friend, Lily (Midori Francis).

Once again, this is pretty well the idea of the outcasts going a bit over the top when it comes to something simple. But where in 'Superbad' and 'American Pie' it was pretty much all about getting laid, this is very much the pre-teen version of that. The time we were somewhere between the ages of 10 and 13, didn't quite understand sex, but got that kissing was pretty well the first step to understanding any of it. It's typically the first thing you wanna do with someone you have a crush on.

This whole thing is mostly about getting Max to kiss a girl named Brixlee (Millie Davis). There's also a bit of a side story where Thor has an identity crisis, secretly wanting to sing, but knowing he'll be unpopular if he does. All the while Lucas is the goody-goody who offers a lot of laughs, portraying the annoyingly honest friend with a heart of gold.

The film is also, seemingly, a peek into my generation's childrens lives. Most of the people from my generation who have kids are around the elementary school age. But this isn't something shocking like watching 'Kids' or anything like that. It's more looking at it from their naivety, and carelessness, and I daresay will make you go into your own memory, thinking up something incredibly silly that you once believed. My personal favourite here is that a "nymphomaniac" is someone who "has sex on land and sea".

This was easily the most laughs I've gotten at a movie this year, but like I mentioned earlier, comedy has really seemed to have taken a back seat, or at least a side seat to everything else. There's even a bit of nostalgic emotion going on here around the end where we see, and remember what friendship was to us back in our elementary school days. It was something to hold onto, but something that would inevitably be missed once entering high school. It kind of ends on a silly note, but seriously, dig back into your memory and remember how you felt knowing how much things were about to change when you watch it.

4/5

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