Review – Good Boys

Sixth grade is a weird time.  You’re out of elementary school, you’re almost in high school, and you begin to notice things.  You begin to notice girls.  You begin to realize what you like, which makes you realize who your true friends are.  Good Boys shows us just how weird this time in life, giving us a wild, rambunctious, hilarious journey of three sixth graders.

Max (Jacob Tremblay), Lucas (Keith L. Williams), and Thor (Brady Noon), or as they refer themselves as The Beanbag Boys (because they all have beanbags) are three best friends who are just beginning the next important step in their lives: sixth grade.  When the cool kid in school invites them to their first kissing party, the boys realize they have no idea how to actually kiss anyone.  This sends them on a whirlwind adventure that includes a lost drone, drugs, and frat boys, while testing their friendship.

Tremblay, Williams, and Noon are perfection.  You really feel like they are actual best friends.  The way they talk to each other, the chemistry, and the amount of fun they are having makes you fall in love with them.  This really helps sell the movie beyond the laughs, and believe me, there are plenty of laughs.  Good Boys looks at this group of boys and this weird time in life.  Their lives are going different ways and it’s this crazy journey that forces them to realize it.  Max is blending in more with the cool kids and liking girls, Lucas likes safety and order, and Thor likes singing and dancing in school musicals.  This is the time in life when things change, in more ways than one, and Good Boys shows us that and makes it the core of the film.

But as I said above, this movie has a ton of laughs.  This is the kind of movie that throws out the comedy constantly, whether it be through a line said by one of the actors or an action that takes place.  I might need to give this movie a second viewing as I feel like I missed a few jokes that were said while I was laughing at another joke.  What the film does really well is make these kids not idiots, but just really naive to the world.  A lot of the things the kids say and the way they say them, from their insults back and forth to the way they mix up words and their mindset towards certain things feels very authentic and not just made for a laugh.  Would a sixth grader know what sex swing is?  Or know what MDMA is?  Probably not, and it’s things like this that bring out the best humor in Good Boys.

Good Boys is Superbad with tweens.  It’s raunchy, hilarious, and features a trio of excellent performances from its young cast.  But through all the laughs and chaos, this a sweet movie about friendship, which really rounds out Good Boys and makes it one of the best comedies of the year.

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