Adventure
Comedy
Review: ‘Good Boys’ is a Raunchy, Hilarious and Surprisingly Politically Correct Good Time
August 16, 2019Sherry Li
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A raunchy comedy following three best friends after they enter the sixth grade, director Gene Stupnitsky's Good Boys is a hilariously good time packed with inappropriate jokes and fun, adolescent adventures. Max (Jacob Tremblay) gets invited to his first kissing party ever, where he'll get the opportunity to kiss his crush. But since he doesn't know how to kiss, he and his two best friends, Thor (Brady Noon) and Lucas (Keith L. Williams), decide to steal Max's dad's drone to spy on some "nymphomaniac" teenagers in order to learn. This leads the boys on an adventure that involves them skipping school, buying drugs and venturing to the mall by themselves, all while being chased down by two teenage girls (Molly Gordon and Midori Francis). Tremblay, Noon and Williams are all perfectly cast, and are simply fantastic together. They have the natural chemistry of real friends and dialogue that feels so authentic it could have easily been written by tweens. The three of them have a great dynamic and all manage to portray a childlike innocence while swinging around dildos and anal beads and attempting to buy drugs. The humor is dirty — in fact, relentlessly so — but it's never hurtful or derogatory at the expense of other people. The film is surprisingly inoffensive, with its characters reminding each other about the importance of consent before kissing and scolding each other for calling a woman a name. Writers Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg clearly respect their characters, and the groups that these characters may represent, making the movie surprisingly politically correct. It all goes to show that comedy doesn't need to be offensive to be funny, as there is rarely a moment that won't make audiences laugh, especially if raunchy, stoner humor is your thing. Most of Good Boys' jokes rely on the same gimmick — namely, cute, innocent, well-meaning kids dealing adult situations and misinterpreting things along the way. That said, watching the film's young stars navigate adolescence is incredibly endearing and gut-bustingly funny, and the result is sure to resonate with viewers. Good Boys releases August 16th, 2019 from Universal Pictures. The film has an MPAA rating of R for strong crude sexual content, drug and alcohol material, and language throughout - all involving tweens. Its runtime is 1 hr. 29 min. |
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