66 Time August 26, 2019
REVIEW
Good Boys bodes well for
the men of the future
By Stephanie Zacharek
Long before The rise of The #meToo movemenT,
modern moms had begun raising their sons to be respectful
of women, to ask permission before touching and to generally
check their sense of entitlement at the door. The era of the
pint-size gentleman has— possibly—arrived. But even the
most evolved moms and dads can’t teach their kids every-
thing. The sweet-spirited comedy Good Boys is all about the
things boys of a certain age just can’t figure out: How do you
kiss a girl (after you’ve gained consent)? What are tampons
really for? Are nymphomaniacs girls who like to set fires?
Max, Thor and Lucas (Jacob Tremblay, Brady Noon and
Keith L. Williams) are three suburban sixth-graders who
are fairly low on the social totem pole but don’t much care.
These three—who call themselves the Bean Bag Boys—
hang tight, mostly riding around on their bikes and playing
Ascension. But their tween utopia is about to change. The
local tough boys—who strut around, hilariously, in spiky-
slick hair and sunglasses, like mini-greasers— challenge
them to a beer- drinking contest. (The record so far is three
sips.) Aspiring pop star Thor, afraid that drinking will hurt
his singing career—he’s about to try out for the school
musical—refuses, thus earning the humiliating nickname
Sippy Cup. Sweet, nerdy Lucas is informed by his parents
(played by Retta and Lil Rel Howery) that they’re splitting
up; at the musical tryouts the next day, he mimes his way de-
jectedly through “Walkin’ on Sunshine.” And future excellent
boyfriend Max has a crush on a schoolmate, a fetching skate-
boarder named Brixlee (Millie Davis); the tough kids have
invited him to a kissing party, and she’s
going to be there. The mechanics of
kissing are a mystery to him, and when
he panics, his posse comes to his res-
cue. One of their first steps is to search
“porn” on the Internet, their quest
momentarily derailed when they type
“porb” instead.
Good Boys is filled with enjoyably
dumb, innocent gags like that. When
the trio finally do locate some good old-
fashioned Internet porn, a corny skit
involving a stepmom and her grown
stepson, they’re so appalled they run
screaming from the computer. The
movie, directed by Gene Stupinsky and
written by Stupinsky and Lee Eisenberg,
spins on their clueless naivete, though
these kids do drop the F bomb a lot.ThaT is, perhaps, their biggest out-
let for rebellion: otherwise, they’re so
earnest and well- intentioned that they
might not even seem real. Aghast at the
mere mention of drug use, they’re ap-
palled when they learn that two older
neighborhood teenagers (played by
Molly Gordon and Midori Francis)
have procured some MDMA to take at a
concert.
Even so, they do get into trouble,
mostly involving the loss of an expen-
sive drone that Max has covertly bor-
rowed from his father, for use in his
smooch- technique research. There’s
also a harrowing scene in which the
three cross multiple lanes of freeway
traffic. Kids, don’t try this at home.
But then, Good Boys isn’t for kids—
it’s merely about them, and it captures
the essence of being young and mysti-
fied and just too embarrassed to ask
anyone about all the things you just
don’t have a clue about. In its explora-
tion of male guilelessness, it’s some-
thing of a middle- school version of the
2007 Superbad. (Seth Rogen is cred-
ited as a producer on both.) And mostly,
with the exception of a tiresome, pro-
tracted gag involving a parental stash of
sex toys, it’s more funny and charming
than it is raunchy. If these boys are the
men of the future, their parents have
done something right. TimeOff Movies
Williams, Tremblay and Noon: bad as they want to be‘Don’t be
afraid to
swear, just
go for it. In
movies like
these, it’s
never too
much.’
JACOB TREMBL AY,
to Collider, on the
advice his mom gave
him for his role in
Good Boys