GOOD BOYS Trailer

We’ve all seen the typical coming-of-age comedy where lovable losers go through a night of wacky, often illegal shenanigans in order to party with the cool kids. Good Boys goes where few dare to go with such an adult premise: grade school. Brought to you by the producers of Superbad, Neighbors, and Sausage Party, Good Boys stars Jacob Tremblay, Brandy Noon and Kieth L. Williams as sixth-grade outcasts who, after getting an invite to their first boy/girl party, realize they don’t know a thing about girls. Using a drone to spy on the promiscuous high school girl next door Hanna, played by Molly Gordon, the boys lose the spy cam and have to get it back, using her handbag they took as collateral. Little do they know the bag is full of Molly (a party drug for the uninformed). Now on the run from Hanna and her friend, the guys narrowly evade scrape after scrape in order to get back the drone and make it to the party.

Normally, the idea of youngsters in possession of drugs while trying to score with the opposite sex might seem crude and inappropriate. And you’d be right. But this, at least from the trailer, feels so much more innocent in execution. Relying on child-like logic, while playing up adolescent naivete of the adult subject matter, what is delivered feels like a fresh version of an overdone genre movie. Rated R for adult themes, many might be wary of such an endeavor, but the preview footage leaves the notion that the creators may have walked the line without taking it too far into creep territory.

New Ground

In his first feature outing, Gene Stupnitsky writes and directs with Lee Eisenberg as co-writer. Both from a comedy pedigree having credits on the American version of The Office, Bad Teacher, and Hello Ladies, the trailer showcases a sweet innocence played off of very adult themes. Understandably, the concern will arise from a tween-heavy comedy aimed at a mature audience, and to be honest, I developed similar trepidation at the notion of underage kids tackling such material. Though, by the end of the trailer, I took a calm and collected look at how they may have made this work.

The kids are portrayed in an immature way. They never seem to have ill intent towards the opposite sex, more curiosity from inexperience. The boys’ antics and dialogue come from a place of adolescent discovery leading to hilarious misunderstandings of what they are actually dealing with. All too often, adults tend to think kids are oblivious to the mature world around them, never realizing the ridiculousness of misinformation we had running through our hormone-soaked brains at that age. Good Boys uses this to its advantage for the impetus of its gags as far as I can tell, leaving me at the conclusion of seeing before judging.

Comedy Is Easy. Adolescence is Hard.

It goes without saying, this is not going to be a comedy for everyone, given the production team. We live in turbulent times of the easily offended and quick to complain which can often hinder the art of comedy. What one might hope for when seeing the final product is a film that takes well-trodden ground to a place of youthful honesty which adults can appreciate in a nostalgic way. This film may star kids, but the themes are for a generation who have been there. Who have made the mistakes of adolescent and come out on the other side with tales to tell to those we bare to follow us in the endless confusion of growing up. This movie is for the kid we once were, scars and all, so we can look back on how crudely we saw the world until life decided to tell us otherwise.

Getting the deep, existential part out of the way, Good Boys looks to be a hearty laugh at just how insane growing up can be. It will be released in US and UK theaters on August 16th, find international release dates here.

Have your own opinions on such a diverse film idea? Let us know in the comments section and keep the conversation going.