"Good Boys"

 ☆☆☆½ 

The R rating is the come-on, the gimmick to make you think Good Boys will be raunchier and much more shocking than it is. So, it's a little surprise that Good Boys is better than it needs to be, a foul-mouthed cross between "The Little Rascals" and Risky Business.

The boys in the movie call themselves "The Bean-Bag Boys," but someone wisely figured that would be a lousy name for a movie. They're a trio of hyper-hormonal 12-year-olds led by Max (Jacob Tremblay), who's the ringleader, with doting Lucas (Keith L. Williams) and dutiful Thor (Brady Noon) his hangers on. The coolest kid in school invites them to a "kissing party," and the movie follows their misadventures as they try to figure out just what that means.

The action is non-stop, and is often genuinely funny, frequently uncomfortable, and occasionally derivative -- like a crossing-the-freeway scene lifted straight from Bowfinger, but with a kicker that made me laugh harder than anything else in the movie.

Largely, your enjoyment of Good Boys will depend on whether you think it's funny for boys whose hormones are ranging to use the F-word and talk about sex and drugs. If you're instantly turned off, the movie is uninterested in bringing you around. Its filmmakers and its audience are probably unaware and unconcerned about how often this has all been done before, but fortunately Good Boys does most of it well enough. It'll make you laugh. Sometimes, that's all a comedy needs to do.

Viewed August 25, 2019 -- ArcLight Hollywood

1440

"Ready or Not"

 ☆☆☆ 

The opening half-hour of Ready or Not is so deliciously pitch-perfect that it seems impossible to sustain such a balance of black comedy, anxiety and satire. It tries, and for a very long time, it almost wins at its own game.

The idea is decidedly weird: Grace (Samara Weaving) marries the heir to the fortune of a worldwide board-game dynasty, most of whom live in a grand old gothic manor filled with secret passages and hidden doors. There's just one catch -- on their wedding night, new members of the family have to play a game with the others. Most options are benign ("Old Maid," anyone?) but one, hide and seek, is deadly. Guess which one she chooses?

She's got to stay hidden and alive between midnight and dawn, or else the lethal consequences of a long-dreaded curse will befall the family. It's a daffy setup, and when it takes the story purely at face value, it's bloody (literally) fun. Its satirical sendup of wealth, family relations, marital strife, and (yes) politics is giddy and effective -- while it stays in the background.

But as the screenplay by Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy begins running out of steam, a complex "mythology" comes to the fore and becomes distracting. Grace and the audience should never fully understand why the game is happening, for this to be a dastardly little chiller. As more and more is explained, Ready or Not becomes slightly less fun and its ultra-violence moves from devious to disturbing.



Viewed AMC Burbank 16 -- Aug. 24, 2019

1945

"Blinded by the Light"

 ☆☆☆☆☆ 

Blinded by the Light is about a boy obsessed with Bruce Springsteen as much as Lawrence of Arabia is about a man obsessed with the desert. The music is just the starting point.

The question is why Javed (irrepressibly played by Viveik Kalra) connects to Springsteen's music as deeply as he does -- and what does his sudden passion say about the spark of light anyone feels when they realize for the first time that they are not alone in their personal darkness?

As the film begins, he's spent the first part of his teenage years in Thatcher-era England thinking he's "into" synth sounds like Pet Shop Boys. And then, by accident, he's turned onto Springsteen, whose uniquely American sounds and themes have nothing to do with Javed's life as the only son of strict Pakistani parents living in a council flat.

Except that they have everything to do with Javed's life, as director Gurinder Chada (Bend it Like Beckham) beautifully shows in montage sequences that combine visual images with the soundtrack to illuminate how art can move someone in splendid ways. As Javed struggles against racism, unemployment and a gloomy ennui (uncomfortably similar to Trump-era America), this music stirs him to want more of his life.

Blinded by the Light doesn't care if you love Springsteen -- only that you've ever been moved by music or art in ways you can barely understand. This gem of a movie shows us what powerful thing that sort of passion really is.



Viewed August 18, 2019 -- ArcLight Sherman Oaks

1910