Film Friday: Good Boys

Spoiler warning: The following review contains mild spoilers for Good Boys, which as of posting was still playing in theaters.

Good Boys makes very clear that it’s an adult oriented movie starring children. One of the earliest trailers jokes about the fact that the stars of the movie are not old enough to actually watch the movie. Created by Seth Rogen and the other minds behind Superbad (a very good movie) and Sausage Party (a not particularly good movie), I figured I was in for at least some crude laughs. What surprised me most about Good Boys is the source of the laughs weren’t as easily predictable as I thought they would have been, and the movie had an incredible amount of heart. Note: even the trailer is not safe for work—be aware of that before you watch it.

 Good Boys tells the story of three best friends, who proudly and adorably refer to themselves as the Bean Bag Boys, as they’re starting sixth grade. There is Max, who is the romantic of the group; Thor, who is the most worried about what others think and his love of musical theater; and Lucas, who is unabashedly a lover of rules and is dealing with his parents getting a divorce. The main plot surrounds the three friends being invited to their first ever kissing party and having to replace Max’s dad’s drone, which they lost trying to watch Max’s neighbor kiss so they could learn how to kiss. The neighbor is a high school girl and wasn’t actually kissing anyone, but they’re mostly believable twelve-year-old idiots. The plan fits.

This movie features the boys finding sex toys without knowing what they are, cussing with frequency, and discussing sex with equal parts confidence and ignorance. It isn’t hard to see why some people would dislike this movie. In fact, even looking at the comments on the trailer suggest that anyone who likes the movie is sick and demented. The film makers should be locked up, and these children are going to need therapy. Though I think it’s important to note that there is nothing wrong with therapy, and everyone could benefit from it in some way, it’s also relevant that this movie benefits from its R rating. It is designed so children more broadly don’t see it. Also, despite the vulgarity, this movie does have the kids understanding consent, eschewing drug use, and showing some real tenderness and love for each other. Actually seeing the movie provides some good lessons in a romp pretty full of debauchery.

I believe the uncontroversial idea that children should be allowed to stay young and innocent as long as they want.  In fact, they should be able to stay innocent for even longer than they might want, but that isn’t the way kids act. Society forces children to buy things to make them feel better; it forces children to hate themselves for so many capitalistic purposes. This movie doesn’t actually do that at all. This movie puts a lens to the reality of twelve-year-old boys talking a big game, not actually having any idea what they’re talking about, only mirroring the half-truths and absurd perceptions they learn from other children, and trying to become adults well before they’re ready. What makes the jokes work so well in this movie is not that the children are simply cussing or that the children are discussing sex. What makes the comedy work so well is how poorly the kids understand sex, how strange their use of cuss words are, and how incredibly true it feels for kids of their age. Good Boys isn’t telling us how kids should act or how it would be funny if they did act a certain way. Good Boys shows us how kids do think and act. It is turned up to the max, but it isn’t inaccurate.

In addition to showing the way the children treat sex and the like, this movie shows how intensely children feel emotions and break up and heart ache. At one moment in the film, the three main kids get in a big fight over not much at all and start crying their eyes out. They have a falling out and comment that “you just grow apart as you get older,” despite the fact they’re all still twelve and in the same classes. It’s an absolutely absurd claim, which makes it funny, but it’s also how seriously someone that age would take the fight. It pulls at the heart strings. The movie shows their pain in the most minor of things, and while it’s still funny, it becomes more touching when you remember how strongly you felt the same feelings as a tween.

Good Boys seems at first blush to be an ironic title—these kids cuss and think naughty thoughts! The kids are kids. They pretend to be tough, rough around the edges, but this really is a story of good boys trying their hardest to be cool. It’s incredibly funny because its weirdly relatable.