Good Boys (2019)

Good Boys (2019)

6/10

Starring

Jacob Tremblay

Keith L. Williams

Brady Noon

Directed by Gene Stupnitsky

I started watching this movie just hoping to pass the time because the buzz and the trailer made it seem like something I shouldn’t expect much from. I was wrong—the movie is funny and takes you right back to your youth, to that time when you were a young guy just starting to notice the opposite sex.

It felt like reliving my childhood. The three young boys made me feel young again, back when I didn’t know anything about sex or kissing and just wanted to be cool. Their innocence was everything needed to make this movie worth watching.

The plot follows three young boys and their series of misadventures. Their naive view of life and their hope to make it to a kissing party drive the story. The three boys are Max (Jacob Tremblay), Lucas (Keith L. Williams), and Thor (Brady Noon). Max has a crush on a girl at his school named Brixlee. He and his two friends call themselves the Bean Bag Boys, and they’re pretty much seen as losers around school. Max has a bit of a cool vibe, though, which made some kids think he’s better than the rest. So, he gets invited to a kissing party, and since Brixlee will be there, he agrees to go—on the condition that he can bring his two friends.

Sounds simple enough, right? All they had to do was show up, and Max would get to kiss his crush. Well, things got complicated fast when the three realized they didn’t know anything about kissing. One bad idea after another followed, and that’s what the movie is all about.

It starts with Max and his friends using his dad’s prized drone to spy on his teenage neighbor, Hannah, to learn how to kiss properly. Hannah and her friend catch the drone, and now Max has to get it back. His attempt to retrieve it doesn’t go as planned, and the three end up stealing the girls’ bag, which happens to have drugs in it. The girls want their drugs back, and Max and his friends want the drone back. What could have been an easy trade gets complicated by their naive view of life.

Soon, everything that could have made their problem easier just gets more and more tangled as their individual quirks and mistakes make things worse.

The movie was written and directed by Gene Stupnitsky, and it’s his directorial debut.

Worth seeing.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

7/10

Starring
Zoe Colletti
Michael Garza
Gabriel Rush
Austin Zajur


Directed by André Øvredal

I’m not a fan of horror movies because death doesn’t seem like a form of thrill to me. But Guillermo del Toro is a masterful storyteller, and when his name is attached to a project, I can be sure it’ll be a fun ride. This movie was exactly that—a great ride, fun, engaging, and with a well-written plot that’s easy to follow.

It didn’t waste time like many horror movies do, leaving loose ends all over the place in the name of suspense. Instead, it was written in a way that made it feel like a lot was happening at once, but there was always a thread holding everything together. A big part of that was the actors (and major props to the writers and director, too). They delivered their roles in a way that made it easy to keep up without getting lost.

This horror movie is based on a series of children’s books called Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. The books are filled with over eighty short horror stories, and this movie adds an origin story for where those tales come from.

In this movie (I haven’t read the books), the story follows a young girl named Stella and her friends. Stella has a sad past—her mother left when she was young, leaving her alone with her dad. She’s often mocked and picked on by the kids at school, with the school bully, Tommy, leading the charge. Stella has two friends who’ve always stood by her: Auggie and Chuck. The three live in a town with its own dark history. Years ago, in a house belonging to the Bellows family, a young woman named Sarah was said to have died there. The story goes that Sarah hung herself and killed children. The Bellows’ house, where Sarah lived, is now considered haunted by the locals.

Fast forward to the 1960s, and the three friends are plotting revenge on Tommy, the chief bully. Their plan is simple: they know he’ll drive past a certain road and snatch candy from kids, so they wait with a bag stretched out. Tommy snatches it and finds a stinky surprise inside. But they’re not done—they egg his car and nearly scare him out of his pants.

An angry Tommy chases them, and they end up in the car of a young man named Ramon. Ramon tells Tommy off, and the group heads to the haunted house to chill out. Tommy, still tailing them, locks them inside. While trying to find a way out, Stella notices a book. She sees it belongs to Sarah Bellows and starts reading the stories inside.

Mysteriously, the door of the house opens, and the group heads home.

Later, while flipping through the book at home, Stella notices a fresh story written in ink that hasn’t dried yet. It tells how Tommy is going to die. The next day, Tommy goes missing. Stella tells the others, but they don’t believe her—until the next story is about Auggie. This time, the writing appears right in front of her and Ramon.

Auggie goes missing, and now Stella, Chuck, and Ramon decide to investigate Sarah’s life to find out what really happened to her. They hope to stop anyone else from vanishing or getting hurt.

This is a great movie, and one you’ll really enjoy if you take the time to see it.