90-second review: If movies like Superbad and Booksmart prove anything, it’s that watching uncool teens try to be cool is a comedy gold mine. Good Boys mines the same tropes for humor — the entire plot revolves around the main trio doing anything and everything to make it to their first spin-the-bottle kissing party. However, there’s also the added layer that they’re tweens and they still don’t understand how many things in the world work.
One of those things is how to kiss. Then even look up “porn” in an attempt to learn and are hilariously horrified to learn that it doesn’t just involve kissing. So, Max (Jacob Tremblay who gave one of the best child performances in history in Room) comes up with a plan to use his father’s beloved drone to spy on his high schooler neighbor Hannah (Molly Gordon) — “she’s nymphomaniac, someone who has sex on land and sea,” he says — and hopefully, learn how to kiss. However, when Hannah and her friend Lilly (Midori Francis) capture the drone, hijinks ensue as the boys try to get it back, which involves a too-realistic sex doll, molly, a brawl in a frat house and more gags than you can keep track of
However, the movie isn’t ridiculous. A lot of why it works is the incredibly low stakes of it all. However, for Max, who is determined to finally kiss his crush, Thor (Brady Noon), who wants to prove he’s cool by drinking a beer in front of the popular kids, and Lucas (Keith L. Williams — a standout), who simply doesn’t want to get in trouble, the stakes seem life or death.
And even though each member of the “bean bag boys” — what the three eponymous good boys call their friend group — is given one characteristic and goal to run with for the whole movie, it works because the three young actors are so good at portraying each of those small struggles as something huge.
It’s refreshing too that the humor, while crude, is never offensive or gross. Good Boys, like Booksmart this year, proves that a raunchy comedy can also be smart and thoughtful — there’s an underlying thread around whether the beanbag boys should be friends in the first place. And while this movie doesn’t quite reach greatness, it never has a moment where it’s not funny or entertaining.
Where to watch Good Boys: Now playing in theaters.
Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.
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