This coming-of-age comedy from producers Seth Rogen and co really works – because it has plenty of heart to work in tandem with the gross-out humour.
If you think Stand by Me set in suburbia with ‘profanity’ and ‘insanity’ – then you get the picture.
Three sixth grade boys – Max (Room and Wonder breakout star Jacob Tremblay), Lucas (Kenneth L Williams) and Thor (Brady Noon) – ditch school when they are invited to their first ‘kissing’ and alcohol party.
All three of them are going through their own problems – all ‘world ending’ situations of varying angst – as the self-tagged ‘Bean Bag Boys’ try to find themselves on one cataclysmic day.
Lucas has just found out his parents are divorcing, Thor has ditched the school play due to it ‘not being cool’ despite an angelic voice – but the main situation revolves around Max’s invite to this ‘life altering’ gathering with his school crush Brixlee (Millie Davis) in his cross-hairs.
An altercation with two older girls – Hannah (Molly Graham) and Lily (Midori Francis) – gets the ball rolling, when the trio fly Max’s Dad’s precious drone over a garden to try and watch them ‘kissing’ for subject material. But when they capture the drone and refuse to give it back, Thor steals a bag with their drugs and this leads to a stand-off that spirals out of control.
Which includes getting embroiled in frat-house paintball, a supermarket altercation with a cop and a death-defying run across six lanes of freeway traffic – to name but a few as the day goes from bad to worse.
With trademark Rogen-esque – the man behind Knocked Up, Superbad and Bad Neighbours – humour at the forefront it hits more than it misses, particularly with some laugh-out-loud ‘porn-related’ sequences early in the piece.
But while it doesn’t completely come together into one coherent piece throughout – the amiable three leads always keep it thoroughly watchable with their likeable characters.
It’s weird when the main threesome aren’t legally allowed to see their own movie with the amount of profanity at hand – but these ‘good’ boys do enough ‘bad’ to make this one of the best comedies of this year.
Rating: 3.5/5
Gavin Miller
Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Keith L Williams, Brady Noon, Molly Gordon, Midori Francis, Millie Davis, Izaac Wong, Josh Caras, Will Forte, Lil Rel Howery, Sam Richardson, Macie Juiles & Stephen Merchant
Running Time: 1 Hr 30 Mins
Director: Gene Stupnitsky
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