Lived It

Main: Is ‘Good Boys’ the next ‘American Pie’?

Episode Summary

How this week’s Premiere Pick ‘Good Boys’ toes the line between raucous pranks and wholesomeness. Plus foot aversions, Holly Valance, and all the naughty things Alexei Toliopoulos and Gen Fricker got up to as kids.

Episode Notes

Tell us your naughty childhood tale at @netflixanz on Instagram and Twitter, or tag #thebigfilmbuffet.

Episode Transcription

Alexei Toliopoulos:

The following episode of The Big Film Buffet contains some coarse language, you have been warned. I'm getting so on my pedestal talking about American Pie.

Gen Fricker:

Can you go off king for five minutes on American pie and why you think it's so important? Because sometimes you say things and I'm like, "Okay, Alexei, whatever.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Hello, I'm Alexei Toliopoulos.

Gen Fricker:

And I'm Gen Fricker.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Welcome to The Big Film Buffet.

Gen Fricker:

A podcast with pop culture, fans, and people looking for what to watch recommendations.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And today Gen we're serving up our main course where we're going to recommend to our listeners, or as I might like to call them the diners at The Big Film Buffet, a Netflix what to watch reco that's coming out on the stream this weekend. And

Gen Fricker:

And the hottest dish we are serving at the buffet this weekend, the film that you should spend your time on, is Good Boys.

Speaker 3:

Look what I found at school today?

Speaker 4:

What is it?

Speaker 3:

I have no idea.

Speaker 5:

That's a tampon, girls shove it up their butt holes to stop babies from coming out. An eighth grader told me that.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Good boys is a film that I am very enthusiastic about, I was lucky enough to catch it in cinemas. So I'm very excited that more people are going to get the chance to jump in on this film. It is basically your classic teen gross out sentimental comedy, but the kind of interesting and fun twist that makes this a brand new, fresh take is that we are no longer centred on adolescents nearing adulthood, we are centering on three very kind, sweet-hearted tweenage boys.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah, 12 year old, 13 year old boys who are experiencing puberty, are experiencing the death of innocence, that really weird stage in your life where you start realising maybe your parents aren't perfect. Maybe the friendships you have now aren't going to be forever. And it's such a heightened moment I think in everyone's life. What were you like as a tweenager?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh, I was much like the good boys themselves. I was very sweet, I was very kind. I was very cherub like. I was chunky yet extraordinarily unfunky, I was a nerd.

Gen Fricker:

Bless you.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

What was a tweenage Gen Fricker like?

Gen Fricker:

I was a big tomboy. I was very foot shy so I didn't ever want people to see my feet. I'd go to the beach and I'd wear combat boots.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh my Lord.

Gen Fricker:

I would walk to the edge of the water in my boots and then I'd quickly take them off and run into the water. I had ankle length board shorts because I just did not want to be perceived, I was so shy.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh my God, what are ankle length board shorts like? I'm imagining JNKO Jeans ready for the sea.

Gen Fricker:

Pretty much, they were basically cargo pants but waterproof, and so heavy. It's wild that I didn't drown frankly.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Can I just say a young Gen Fricker sounds like she dresses not unlike Auteur director Kevin Smith.

Gen Fricker:

Yes, 100%. I didn't have any of the hockey jerseys or anything like that but definitely baggy, boyish clothes like that. So for this film, watching Good Boys I was like, "Ah, so relatable." Just trying to figure out who the hell you are at this extremely awkward moment in your life.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah, it's so unique as well because I think we see so many of those gross-out sentimental films that I really do think started with one of my all-time favourite groundbreaking films, and we did mention a little bit on the last episode on The Snack, talking about that gross-out genre, American Pie. Comes out in 1999, a huge turning point in cinema for film that year, and this one is what changed comedy.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I'm getting so on my pedal stool talking about American Pie.

Gen Fricker:

Can you go off king for five minutes on American Pie and why you think it's so important? Because sometimes you say things and I'm like, "Okay, Alexei, whatever." And you have obviously incredible taste in movies so it's not that I don't doubt it, I'm just not seeing it how you say it.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Okay. Let me put the timeline into place.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah, why was it so vital for 1999?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Well I think 1999 is a turning point for cinema. We're seeing lots of big iconic movies, The Matrix, Fight Club, The Spy Who Shagged Me, American Pie, but it's a turning point. Big filmmakers are getting a big chance and I think that American Pie, where that sits in it is that it's taking late 70s, early 80s gross-out teen comedies like your Animal House, Bachelor Party, Porkies, and then it's infusing them with the 1980s more sweeter, sentimental John [Husian 00:04:46] comedies.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And then gross-out and sentimental come together for the first time really where works out in equal measure, and we're seeing like that is from that point the evolution of where comedy goes. Because in the 2000s you're getting stuff like Jada Patel really popping off with Knocked Up, with the 40 year old Virgin, with Funny People, which is like that continued meld of those two different modes of comedy evolving.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And I think American Pie is like the cornerstone of all that. It's like the Rosetta Stone if you will, and I think now Good Boys I think really is that next step in what this comedy is because it's centred on a younger demographic, centred on tweenage boys, which is very fresh because all these teen gross-out movies and a lot of teen movies in general centred around the idea of ascending into adulthood, the next step.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

But we don't see this next step very often, of the step into adolescence. And I think with Good Boys it's done so cleverly because it has all that gross-out stuff, it has all the sweet stuff, but the balance is completely fresh because these are naive people, these young boys played by Jacob Tremblay, played by Brady Noon who plays Thor, and Keith L. Williams who plays Lucas.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Who are these naive sweet people that are in a world that is changing around them and becoming more adult, and it's played for such good laughs with this idea of them being woke and talking about consent in very taught and adult ways, is so fresh and so new. I don't think I've ever seen comedy done like this. I think Good Boys is perched, now that it's out there in the streaming world, to become a future sleepover classic.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah, what were some of the sleepover classics other than American Pie for you? What are the ones that you were quoting the day after at school?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

This is real niche, there was one movie called Kung Pow, Enter The Fist, which was this weird, phoney martial arts parity, where they got old martial arts movie footage. It's directed by Steve Oedekerk and stars Steve Oedekerk, and they basically lip sync and put new actors over the old characters. And it's a comedy film set in old martial arts movies. I haven't seen it since I became... 14 would have been the last time I saw it, but I was like this is the sickest, funniest movie of all time.

Gen Fricker:

You were saying before you're a good boy, but did you ever do anything bad? Did you ever be a bad boy?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I was so afraid of getting in trouble, like desperately afraid of it. And there was even one scene that kicks off this movie that reminded me so much of exactly who I was. There's this great scene that kicks off the film where Jacob Tremblay, who is such a marvellous actor, like undoubtedly one of the best child actors of all time. And it's great to see him use his skills that brings authenticity or fear to movies like Room or Doctor Sleep being used for comedy. It's pretty astounding. But this first scene is where he's looking up naughty things. He's making a character on a World of Warcraft style game, an Orc, then he's giving her a much bigger chest area if you will.

Gen Fricker:

Say it, say the word. Say boobies.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Okay, he's giving her boobies. He's making boobies quite large. I can relate to that so much, just being a curious little boy playing video games. And then he tries to lock his door in a similar fashion. When I was a tweenager, about 12 years old, my dad took me to his work and he had meetings all day. He works at a university, and he just put me in his office and he just said, "You can use the computer, you can use the internet. Don't look up anything weird mate, okay. Don't look up anything weird."

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And as soon as he left I typed into Google Holly Valance no clothes.

Gen Fricker:

Oh my God.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

As soon as he left the office, I'm like... Just going, "Yes, I've got access to a computer."

Gen Fricker:

That's the second time we've mentioned Holly Valance on this pod as well.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Well she's important to my mind.

Gen Fricker:

Am I being naive? Did good boys actually exist.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Well Gen, you're fricking staring at one right now dude, okay. I'm living proof that good boys exist, and yes, they do grow up. Okay. And they grew up to be fricking movie fans. But this is like real, because you hear stories about good boys going bad in stuff like Lord of the Flies, but Lord of the Flies is not really a real true story. It's a fictitious example of good boys going bad. But there is a real example of something like that.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

In the 1950s this little group of teenagers from Tonga went out sailing, they went on a little adventure, and they got marooned on a deserted island, not unlike Lord of the Flies. And you think that would turn into that kind of scenario, but instead they lived quite peacefully. They all were well fed for the two years that they were lost there. They all remained quite happy and they all worked together to live harmoniously and peacefully for that time.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

So I got to say, not just me, but historical evidence leads us to believe that good boys can be out there. They can be true-hearted even though they live in a very silly, grubby world.

Gen Fricker:

As you were saying, we're so used to these gross-out sentimental comedies that centre around late adolescents, and it is something that I think is such a fresh take on this time in people's lives, is that kind of sexual awakening and just how shameful it feels. And I feel like that opening scene is so accurate in that, and then you just don't understand what's going on with your body or why you want to do things. And it's so ripe for comedy. It is wild that it hasn't really been explored.

Gen Fricker:

The other thing that-

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yes, there's something in there with you, did you ever do stuff like that? Bring shame to your parents, getting in trouble?

Gen Fricker:

Yeah, I remember really distinctly being about 12, maybe 11, and I was at a party with my family and I called another kid a bullshit artist. Which is such a weird thing to say as a 12 year old, to be like, "You're a bullshit artist."

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh my God, that's so funny to imagine little Gen Fricker going, "Ain't going to bullshit a bullshitter okay, I can smell a mile away. And you're a fricking bullshit artist."

Gen Fricker:

I don't know why I called this kid that but then they went off and cried, told on me to my parents. My parents dragged me up in front of everyone and they're like, "That's not okay. That's..." And I was like, "Clearly, I've gotten this off you. What 12 year old just knows the phrase bullshit artist?" I don't think I've ever said bullshit artist since.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Of course it's an adult phrase, but an adult phrase from the 90s.

Gen Fricker:

It is absolutely something that adults say about someone behind someone else's back, and I absolutely clocked it.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

You would have heard you parents going, "Oh, tell that bullshit artist to rack off please."

Gen Fricker:

Yes, exactly. Put down the landline phone, I'm tired of this bullshit artist. Let's go read the yellow pages and watch a VHS.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I just kept on getting drawn back into this movie with just authentic, silly, stupid moments. There's one point in the film where to get money, to be able to buy back a drone that they destroyed, they decide to sell a rare magic card, like a card collectible game, and it awoke this forgotten, repressed memory in me.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

One of the happiest days of my life was going through a deck of Pokemon cards that my dad had got me and slowly but surely going through every card, seeing that I already had each one. And I was getting disappointed by this gift that I'd gotten. And by the very end I found a shiny, holographic Charizard card, which is forever the best Pokemon card. It was the strongest Pokemon, and since then has become the most valuable Pokemon cards.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And one day this little kid my age, his name was George, I'll say his name on the record okay. He stole my Charizard card, he stole it. He had stuff going on in his life I'm sure, I don't want to blame him too much for it, but it really hurt me. And he wasn't really my friend, our grandparents were friends so we were forced to hang out, and he stole my Charizard card. I looked up as I was watching the movie how much I could have made for it, six K dude, I could of sold it for six K. That's such real money for me now.

Gen Fricker:

That's... Oh [inaudible 00:13:30], George.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Six K dude, Georgie boy what have you done to me, dude?

Gen Fricker:

Oh my God, if I was you I would think about that every single day and be trying to track this kid down.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

George, if you're listening, I got one compound word for you. You're a bullshit artists mate.

Gen Fricker:

The thing that distinguishes this I think as a movie of its times is what you were saying before, about how these kids are spouting this really progressive language about sexuality, about bullying and stuff. There's a scene where the kids are practising kissing on a CPR doll, and again, it's so cringey but I've absolutely practised kissing in the mirror when I was that age.

Gen Fricker:

And they're about to kiss the doll and then one of the guys stops the other boys and is like, "Wait, wait, wait, we've got to ask for her consent first." And I'm like, "Oh, that's just sweet." It's just something I've never seen in a film before or really anywhere before. I'm like, "Oh, that's nice." But it also just shows you that dogmatic language that kids are given as tools where they don't really understand how it applies in the real world.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And I think it really illustrated the actual perfect comedic juxtaposition of this movie, because you called it a CPR doll like the kids do in the movie, but it is a real sex doll that one of the kid's parents owns. So it's like that perfect balance of really sweet, tender, innocent behaviour with good intentions in a very grotty, grubby world.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think it's done so well because it's both simultaneously fresh and new, because this is a language we've not heard used in a comedy like this. So it undercuts and updates a lot of what the history of this genre is in a very exciting and fresh way, but also it's this great character comedy where we get so much of the perspective of what these characters are.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

It shows that they are very sweet, very thoughtful, kind, good boys, but they're starting to grapple with a world that cannot handle that, the world's not ready for what the new generation is going to be like. They're like nice people trapped in a grotty world.

Gen Fricker:

Yes, absolutely. You get that feeling after you finish the movie as well. It finishes in a really beautiful place and then it hits you a bit emotionally because you're like, "They still haven't grappled that, the world isn't as pure and ideologically clean as they've been brought up to be." And it's this bit of sweetness at the end of this grotty movie that you're not expecting.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I know right, and especially because so much of this movie is focused on the friendship of these boys. This is really all about those first friends that you make in the world and how important they are for you, but do you stay friends forever? And I think that this movie handles it in a way that is very interesting, because it's still in that phase where this is their future. And then it speeds everything up, it speeds all these relationships up.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And I think that's why this will be a meaningful movie for people in the future, because those are things that we all went through. You think that you're going to be friends with your friend when you're in primary school for the rest of your life, but are you really?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I recently just caught up with my best friend from when I was that age after a decade or so of not seeing each other, we had brekkie and we turned out quite similar.

Gen Fricker:

Really?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah, he's much smarter than me. He's a very successful journalist and stuff and I'm a fake comedian. So it was cool to catch up with him, and it reminded me so much of this movie. And I want to say shout outs to Max Philistine, love you buddy, and I will forever.

Gen Fricker:

Oh, that's so sweet. I think that's the other thing about this movie, it's such a nice metaphor that when you're at that age the world feels so small, so you can have these really strong opinions.

Gen Fricker:

These will be my best friends forever. My family are always going to love me, I'm always going to be in this neighbourhood and that kind of thing, and then as they have to go on this quest, which is insane, it has to be watched in the movie, and they get exposed to all these dangers and surprises in the wide world. It is the perfect metaphor for what that moment in your life is like, where you start seeing the edges of your world or the horizons getting a bit bigger.

Gen Fricker:

And you realise that you don't know as much as you thought and you can't be sure about anything anymore. It's the same feeling I got when I watched Toy Story 4, I just cried for the whole thing. But I was watching it next to a six-year-old, and-

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Oh, they don't get it.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah, and this six year old just stared at me the whole time, being like, "Why are you crying? Everything's fine." Everything's worked out in this film but I just balling my eyes out, obviously I didn't say it, but I was just like, "Nah man, you never get your childhood back, and when you realise that it's over, and you'll never get it back."

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Don't you get it kid, I'm Woody.

Gen Fricker:

And one day you'll be Woody too.

Gen Fricker:

I feel like I'm talking about this movie as if it is this very sweet childhood movie, but it's filthy. It's disgusting. There's sex toys everywhere, there's drugs. There's stupid physical comedy. It's so funny to watch because it's hectic that the very young kids... And the swearing in this movie is off charts I would say.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I don't know how they got these little kids to swear so much. It's like an accurate portrayal, stuff like Goonies I feel like goes hand in hand with this movie, where they're on a venture but they're these little rough, little scrapper kids throwing language like this around. When I was 12, I'll admit it. I swore, I said stuff like piss, fart and dickie. I can relate.

Gen Fricker:

You said dickie?

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I think that's one of the things that makes this movie work so much, is the stakes are really high. High school movies and teen movies, the stakes are usually unnaturally high but they feel real, because when you're in high school everything is life or death. Everything is be all and end all, and I think for this movie it's like extend them even further to be these are young kids that are in a drug deal situation.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

One of my favourite scenes of the movies is when Lucas, the sweetest of the three boys, gets his arm dislocated.

Gen Fricker:

Oh my God.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And then, because they're too afraid to go to get help because they don't want to get in trouble, which is the highest stakes of everything, they have to try and put his arm back into place with the little bit of knowledge that they know from using YouTube and stuff.

Gen Fricker:

It is funny, because again I just remember kids would do dumb stuff like that all the time, they'd fall off a building, break their arm and stuff. But also kids at that age are so resilient because they haven't had those fearful experiences so they can just dust themself off and keep going.

Gen Fricker:

Which again is another part of the uniqueness of this movie, is that they can just look these insane and absurd situations in the eye and be like, "Yeah, we'll keep going. We've got to get to where we need to be."

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah, I got to say as well, this movie has such a monster cast of both young performers, like the three boys at the centre, they are all superb. These are some really high-end, top tier comedy performances from them. And you've got such older teens, like Molly Gordon and Midori Frances, who play these two older girls that are almost the antagonists of the movie.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

But then you get to glimpse of what their life is as well, and that's like another teen movie of itself. But then you've got like Retta, Lil Rel Howery, you've got Sam Richardson, you've got Will Forte, Stephen Merchant as well, all turning in very silly, funny adult comedic performances peppering throughout the entire film.

Gen Fricker:

There a scene with Sam Richardson who you might know from Veep, or he does an incredible Conan goes abroad special where he and Conan O'Brien go to Ghana. If you haven't seen it I'm fairly certain you can watch it on Netflix as well.

Gen Fricker:

He's usually playing a really likeable, innocent character. So in this movie he plays a cop who's just off duty and a bit over it, and it's great... Again, watching this movie as an adult, you can see yourself in both the adult characters being like, "Oh man, life sucks."

Gen Fricker:

And then, not that, that sounds dark. I'm fine. These characters were tired, they're burnt out, they've been working and stuff like that, and then you can see yourself in the characters of these kids who are just innocent, wide-eyed, surprised by everything. It's so great. But yeah, I love Sam Richardson so much. When he popped up in this it was so good. Will Forte playing a dad.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Ah, he was born for it. The guy was born to be a dad in a teen movie.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah, and he always plays absolute kooks. So for him to play a straight man is amazing.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

But even his straight man is completely kooky, like when he's having an argument with his son, he's like, "I love you but I don't like you right now." Saying such crazy lines like you will no longer refer to me as dad and stuff.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And just being totally weirdo, nerdy. I just really think this is such a cool movie. And it comes from a Dunder Mifflin alumni, Gene Stupnitsky was a writer behind The Office, [inaudible 00:22:43], and American Workplace. So I think if you like that kind of humour you're really going to get a lot out of this very strong, comedic debut.

Gen Fricker:

Similar thing why I love the American Office is there is so much heart, it is stupid and ridiculous and it's oftentimes people taking really big swings at things and embarrassing themselves. It's very human about that, and that's in the genealogy of this movie as well. It's about people just trying to do the best they can, taking massive swings, things not working out and quite often turning disgusting.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

If people have already caught up with Good Boys Gen, what other movies in that same vein that you think they'll also like?

Gen Fricker:

Well, one that immediately comes to mind is Book Smart, came out a couple of years ago.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Absolutely love it.

Gen Fricker:

Olivia Wilde, directorial debut, and it's got a similar thing. Coming of age, kids who aren't very cool but trying to do cool things. There's a lot of heart in it.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I love this movie as well, and I would say I scarily look exactly like Beanie Fieldstein. Someone put a blonde wig on me with long hair and I looked exactly like her, I even have the same teeth as her.

Gen Fricker:

What? Oh my God.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Yeah, you can check it out. I put it up on my Instagram.

Gen Fricker:

Yeah, I'll have a look. Oh my God.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And the other one?

Gen Fricker:

The other one is Wet Hot American summer, there's a TV series on Netflix. And like Good Boys has really young people doing really gross things.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And often played by 40 year old men.

Gen Fricker:

When Hot American Summer has teenagers played by people in their late 40s, it's very silly. It doesn't really exist in any kind of real universe but it's just really good fun. And if you enjoyed Good Boys you'll definitely enjoy that.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Two perfect recommendations, two of my favourite things ever. I'm also going to chuck in, also on Netflix, Big Daddy, the Adam Sandler classic. I think it hits those same sweet spots while still being very silly and irreverent. And I caught up with it not that long ago and it brought me to tears.

Gen Fricker:

Oh.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

I love it, I love you sandman. So Good Boys is our big recommendation to you this weekend. We're both extremely enthusiastic about it. It is on Netflix right now so I suggest chucking it on. Or if you're a cool uncle or something spread the word to your little nibblies dude.

Gen Fricker:

Oh my God.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Let them know about it.

Gen Fricker:

Alexei's your funcle, I'm your staunch aunt, your staunt.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Your staunt and your funcle recommend this regardless. Thanks so much for joining us today on The Big Film Buffet. If you like this podcast give it a review on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a nice comment and don't forget to subscribe or follow.

Gen Fricker:

This episode was hosted by Alexei Toliopoulos and me, Gen Fricker.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

Produced by Michael Summer and Anou Hasbolt.

Gen Fricker:

Edited by Jeffrey O'Connor.

Alexei Toliopoulos:

And executive produced by Tony Broderick and Melanie Marney.