Along the way, they each have their own personal issues to deal with, like Max's desire to be more mature, Lucas' grappling with his parent's divorce and Thor struggling to be himself. Those are notable parts of the plot but the center attraction of Good Boys is seeing these precocious youngsters dropping F-bombs and unwittingly getting into wacky antics. If you're like me, you watched the trailer for Good Boys and wondered how they could stretch this premise out for a feature-length movie. In the actual movie, it turns out that is the biggest problem fo the whole movie, Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg's script (the former of these two also directs) does tend to feel like a bunch of little standalone short films stitched together.
One can see these scenes functioning as a series of Funny or Die videos like that Landlord video from 2007. The Good Boys Go To A Convenience Store. The Good Boys Go To A Fraternity. The Good Boys Try To Fix An Injury. I can see the thumbnails for these videos now! While the results tend to be humorous, it also tends to be episodic and there are instances where the movies straining so hard to make these pieces fit together that it detracts from the yuks. Also hurting the laughs are some clumsy visual elements. Certain gags, like an awkward joke involving a passer-by Lucas refers to as Gandalf, are brought to life through clunky editing and camerawork that seems to be a result of working around a lot of improvised jokes (a common fault in Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen-adjacent comedies).
Though it has qualities that detract from its comedy, the best quality about Good Boys is that it is a pretty darn funny motion picture. Put simply, I cackled a lot during this one, especially since Stupnitsky and Eisenberg realize that you can't just have the jokes exclusively rely on watching the kid from Room saying the F-bomb (especially since The Predator and The Twilight Zone already went to that well). Instead, they get a large share of the comedy in Good Boys from the kid protagonists being totally oblivious yet totally assured in their knowledge of adult matters. Plus, it's a nice amusing touch that they never forget that these characters are children, their behavior and outlook constantly reflects what kids in this sixth-grade age range go through at this point in their life.
This adherence to reality is especially apparent in Lucas whose dedication to constantly telling the truth was a startlingly accurate portrait of how I acted at that same age. Good Boys totally reminded me what it was like to be at that age where you still thought the slightest mistake would doom you for life. Not only is Lucas a character who feels authentic, but his personality is also hysterical and it's especially humorous thanks to the performance delivered by Keith L. Williams. Handily the MVP actor of the whole project, Williams has a killer sense of comic timing in his dialogue deliveries and he makes for an amusing sensible counterpart to his frantic profane buddies.
His friends are also brought to life through solid lead performances by Jacob Tremblay and Brady Noon, both of whom, like Williams, embody realistic portraits of sixth-grade angst while also delivering memorable gags. Meanwhile, brief appearances from adult figures in the kid's lives allow for delightful cameos from the likes of Will Forte, Retta and Lil Rel Howery. Just as nice as the hilarious performances is a final story turn in the last ten minutes that goes into unexpectedly thoughtful territory that suddenly makes Good Boys a companion piece to Stand By Me, of all things. Good Boys has its share of troubles in getting its premise to sustain a whole movie, but overall, the laughs here are numerous enough for me to declare that Good Boys might as well be a 2017 Safdie Brothers directorial effort since it's a good time.
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