Boys will be boys — f-bombs, drug deals, kissing and all
The tale of three sixthgraders f-bombing their way through a series of adolescence-threatening adventures en route to a nerve-wracking kissing party, “Good Boys” (boring title) is located at the intersection of “Superbad” and “Baby’s Day Out.”
The film rests on the comic potential of kids swearing like it’s a “South Park” audition. But the three at the center of what passes for the story find themselves on the cusp of a new, uncertain phase of life. This saves “Good Boys” from its own weaknesses. For every lazy, derivative set-up involving kids sprinting across six lines of highway traffic, or mistaking sex-toy paraphernalia for nunchucks or a necklace, there’s a nice turn of phrase in the script by first-time director Gene Stupnitsky and co-writer Lee Eisenberg, who worked on “The Office.”
Raised, apparently, on films like “Superbad,” the 12-year-olds are mostly careful with each other’s egos and feelings, even when they’re screaming. They’re woke in ways the older “Superbad” boys, from the Paleolithic era of 2007, never were. The basic tenets of sexual consent, even if it’s just the kissing stage, have been nicely drilled into the brain pans, though the better jokes come from their age-appropriate lack of experience and knowledge.
Sweet, crafty Max (Jacob Tremblay of “Room”), sweet, guileless Lucas (Keith L. Williams) and rough-around-the-edges musical theater kid Thor (Brady Noon) have been fast friends for years. Max is nursing a crush on Brixlee (Millie Davis), shown fleetingly in a shyly adoring medium shot. She barely speaks; one of these days, two men will write a comedy about boys, and the object of someone’s affection will actually get something to say.
There’s a kissing party planned at the home of a forbiddingly cool kid (Izaac Wang). Max and Thor, though not so much Lucas, embark on a research mission on the mechanics and how-tos. They deploy a drone camera owned by Max’s father (Will Forte) to spy on a neighbor girl going out with a layabout college boy. The drone is destroyed; the boys must replace it, fast. There’s a drug-buying subplot involving MDMA, aka molly, sought by the manipulative older girls played by Midori Francis and Molly Gordon. They’re good, and “Good Boys” has the good sense to use them for some third-act sympathetic wisdom.
After so many Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg-produced projects celebrating the glories of weed, it’s strange to see “Good Boys” pull a moralistic switcheroo and treat stoners as antagonists, not role models. Director Stupnitsky lacks finesse at this stage of his directorial career. He is, however, well-attuned to catching moments on the fly: a quick glimpse of Lucas and Thor playing pattycake, for example, reminding us these kids they are still kids.