We hardly give kids the benefit of the doubt these days. In actuality, they probably have more of an understanding on what is going on than they may let on. The new film “Good Boys,” out this weekend, explores that notion to such hilarious heights in one of the best surprise comedies of the summer.
The story follows three friends — Max, Lucas and Thor — played by actual young children Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams and Brady Noon, respectively — who abandon school one day to go on an adventure to sell a valuable card from the popular Ascension card game in order to replace an expensive drone that the boys had accidentally destroyed. All the while, the boys are carrying drugs that they’ve mistakenly stolen from Max’s next-door neighbor Hannah and her friend Lily, who are now chasing them across town.
The boys hope their plan goes off without a hitch before Max’s father, played by Will Forte, gets home to see what they have done and, in turn, grounds them from going to their first “kissing party.” Throughout their adventures, the boys drop F-bombs like they just heard the word for the first time and discuss things that are way over their heads with the sort of confidence that only kids that age could sensibly muster.
I caught up with Gene Stupinsky and Lee Eisenberg, who wrote and directed the film, to find out what it was like to coach such young children through some of the raunchy jokes they may not understand yet.
Part of what makes “Good Boys” so hysterical is seeing these three 12-year-old boys cursing up a storm and talking about things you would never expect. Do you think parents give children that age enough credit for what they actually know?
Gene Stupinsky: To be 12 is such a funny age. Your body is changing. Everything is just awkward. I just remember feeling awkward all the time. I was uncomfortable in my own skin. I think most 11- or 12-year-olds are.
Lee Eisenberg: I remember being in the car and driving home from karate with my mom and sister and just bursting out in tears for no reason. And my sister, who is younger, saying, “What’s wrong with Lee?” And my mom whispering “hormones,” and that made me cry even more because I couldn’t control it.
Do you think the actors were too young to be fully “in on the jokes” of the movie?
GS: I don’t think that they understand that their earnestness and awkwardness is what makes us laugh. I would say of the kids, maybe Brady, who plays Thor, was closest to see what the joke was. But they’re just too young to understand what it is about them that makes them funny.
LE: I can’t wait for them to see this movie in 10 years!
LE: The funniest was when they would improvise occasionally and they would say the exact same line and just throw in an F-word. They thought that’s what we were looking for!
In a way, were they just seeing what they could get away with?
GS: They were definitely seeing what they could get away with. I think that’s natural at that age. It’s funny because they’re so sweet off-camera. They’re not walking around swearing but I think they really enjoyed the opportunity to swear. They knew that they couldn’t get in trouble for talking like that.
The boys find themselves stumbling upon some pretty raunchy things throughout their adventures. Were there some subjects that you had to dance around while filming?
GS: Yeah. One time we were doing a scene with a sex doll and they were positioning the sex doll and her dress came up. The boys saw that the doll was, say, “anatomically correct.” They immediately had questions and Steven Merchant, who was there, brilliantly said, “This is for doctors to practice on in medical school.” And they bought that! It made sense to them. A lot of it was like, “Yeah, go ask your mom.” We did not give them any information.
LE: We’d hang out with the kids, but it was not sex education [laughs].
While the film is full of hilarious moments, it also touches on the theme of growing past some of the first friends you have when you are a kid, when your interests begin to fall out of line with each other.
GS: We talked a lot about that age and when you start making choices on your own and your mom and your dad aren’t saying, “Hey, you’re going to hang out with these people because they live around the corner.” You start kind of finding your way in the world a little bit more and you start announcing that you like karate or you like comic books or are into baseball. You start forging these bonds with the people that do what you do. I’m friends from when we were 6 or 7. But some of those people, we keep in touch because we have shared memories, and some of them it’s because we’re still interested in the same things.
