ReelBob: ‘Good Boys’ ★★★½

By Bob Bloom

One of life’s major ironies is that when you are a kid, you can’t wait to grow up. You feel that the entire adult world knows some big secret that you don’t.

You believe adulthood is the cool club — and you want to join it as quickly as possible.

Of course, when you’re an adult — and grow older — you more and more begin to yearn for those uncomplicated days when you could just hang out with your friends and do childish things: no mortgage, no job, no responsibilities, just fun.

“Good Boys” touches on that time when a child works hard to convince the world — and his peers — that he is not a kid; that he is cool and mature.

Max, Thor and Lucas are best friends who have just started sixth grade. They call themselves the Beanbag Boys and are out to prove to their classmates — as well as themselves — that they are no longer little boys, but young men who know all about worldly matters, including girls, sex and drugs.

An immediate challenge faces the boys when Max is invited to a “kissing party” by the popular clique at school. Thor and Lucas are excluded, but the loyal Max wrangles an invitation for them.

Their first challenge is learning how to properly kiss a girl. That quest begins a series of disasters and bad choices involving a drone, the young women who live next door, sex toys, and a visit to a frat house, among other misadventures.

“Good Boys” is a low-brow, very funny comedy that overflows with “f”-bombs and sexual innuendo. The fun is quickly comprehending that Max, Thor and Lucas really have no concept about any of these things — despite their fake bravado.

The film is not so much about the obstacles the Beanbag Boys have to overcome to attend the party and be accepted by the “cool kids,” as it is about the first stirrings of puberty and all the crazy shit that goes with it.

Watching the movie — as comically exaggerated as it is — I could not help but think of my grandsons who recently began eighth and sixth grades.

That made it easier for me to bond and sympathize with Max, Thor and Lucas, as they traversed this most difficult period of budding adolescence.

During their long day together, which begins with the bad idea of ditching school, the boys learn some hard lessons about growing up — the most painful being that their friendship may not survive as they discover other interests that could send them down separate paths.

Max, Thor and Lucas, played by Jacob Tremblay, Brady Noon and Keith L. Williams, are endearing. Sure, they curse, but, be truthful, what 12-year-old today doesn’t know what the late George Carlin used to call the “seven dirty words?”

The young actors have a naiveté and innocence about them that makes it easy for you to forge an emotional bond with them.

At one point, an adult refers to the boys as little kids, and Max defiantly shoots back, “We’re ‘tweens!” You just gotta love it.

It also helps that director Gene Stupnitsky, who cowrote the script with Lee Eisenberg, seems to have created a mind-meld with some sixth-graders to create his script. The language and actions sound authentic. With the exception of the “f-bombs” — I hope — some of the dialogue sounds like sentences my grandsons would utter.

Adults in the screening audience were laughing loudly at many of the situations. I would suggest if you have the inner strength — and have children in this age group — go see “Good Boys.”

Consider it homework or scouting for potential hazards. And if you want to bring the kids, ignore the movie’s “R”-rating and use it as a bonding experience. It couldn’t hurt.

I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My reviews appear at ReelBob (reelbob.com) and Rottentomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com). I also review Blu-rays and DVDs. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com or on Twitter @ReelBobBloom. Links to my reviews can be found on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

GOOD BOYS
3½ stars out of 4
(R), language, drug and alcohol material, crude sexual content