REVIEW: GOOD BOYS is the definitive laugh out loud comedy of the summer.

goodboys

Good Boys dances the fine line between light-hearted innocent fare and classic raunchy comedy with a silly but endearing tale about growing up.

Seth Rogen has taken the baton from Judd Apatow in producing engaging and uproarious black comedies. From Preacher on AMC to The Boys on Amazon, this has been Rogen’s summer. Now, Roger and director Gene Stupnitsky take their brand of humor and apply it to the tween demographic in their new comedy, Good Boys, which is one of the most laugh-out-loud comedies in years. Good Boys follows a trio of tweens, The Beanbag Boys of Max (Jacob Tremblay), Lucas (Keith L. Wiliams), and Thor (Brady Noon), lifelong friends who are starting the sixth grade together. Thor loves singing but it’s important for him to be cool, Lucas is still a kid at heart, and Max is on the cusp of puberty, dedicating much of his thinking to the chance of getting to make out a cute skater girl named Brixlee (Millie Davis). Max is the most popular of the three and gets invited to a makeout party, managing to get his nerdier friends invited as well, but the 3 worry about what to do since none have kissed someone before. The trio borrows a drone to spy on some local girls, Hannah and Lily, (Molly Gordon and Midori Francis), hoping to see kissing, but their drone is captured and the girls won’t give it back. The boys steal some Molly from the girls hoping to trade it for the drone, but hijinks ensue from here as the boys and Hannah and Lily try to one-up the other to get what they both want.

In a lot of ways, Good Boys feels like an aged down hybrid of Pineapple Express and Superbad. That’s a good pedigree as far as teen and adult comedies go and Good boys doesn’t disappoint. The young cast exudes earnestness which makes the comedy hit that much harder. Whether it’s mistaking sex toys for weapons of self-defense, or getting into sales negotiations over a sex doll with a pedophile (Stephen Merchant), the movie flows and my sides hurt from laughing after the movie was over. There are some great performances from Lil Rel Howery and Retta as Lucas’ well-meaning parents that elicit a lot of laughs. But overall, it’s the boys themselves that are the stars of the movie with their engaging and charismatic portrayals. Brady Noon steals the film every time he’s on-screen with his Cartman-like character coupled with his obsession with singing. Moreover, Keith L. Williams is the breakout star of the film. His heart-felt childlike nature lights up the screen and makes the jokes at the expense of his naivete all the funnier. Similarly, Jacob Tremblay’s Max and his obsession with getting to the party really opens him up in terms of comedic potential. He has one of the best setpieces in the film with a confrontation in a frat house and I look forward to seeing him in more films over the years.

Overall, Good Boys is a must-see and sure to go down as an all-time comedy along the lines of Superbad. Don’t miss out on this laugh-riot.