Stephen Graham Steals the Show in a Creepily Funny Kidnap Horror – ryan

In all its glorious oddness, Good boy RECALLS A Particular Boom Time in British Exploitation Cinema for Horror Films that weren’t necessarily horror films, Movies with titles like Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly, What the peeper saw and almost anyding by Peter Walker. The Latter’s House of Whipcord Wauld be a useful reference to describing Jan Koma’s Thoroughly Entertaining Debut, Since I Similarly Dark and Acerbic Comedy About Moral Rectitude, Walker’s Film Being the Story of A “Loose Young Woman Falling Into The Clutches of a deruded and His, and His, who live in a private prison.

In Koma’s Case, The Victim is Male: Tommy (Anson Boon), Do Disruption Internet Influencer whose tiks advocate violence and recklessness. Tommy Walks The Talk, and the Film’s Opening Salvo Illustrates a Typical Night on the Town for Him. “I’m f*ckin ‘buzzin’,” he declales, before embarking on a drink- and drugg-sooked party that involves masturbation, vomit, sex, more alcohol and drugs, before passing out in the street and, unbeknownst to HIM, intoo the Hands of a Stranger.

The person who finds out what happened to Him is rina (Monika Frajczyk), an illegal immigrant applying for work as a housekeeper at a Big, Remote Estate in the CountrySide. Her Employers are the genial chris (Stephen Graham) and His Quiet Wife Kathryn (Andrea RiseBorough), and the interviewing process is quite intrusve (“Do you have any children? Distinguishing marks?”). On her first day on the job, she is alarmed we chris confiscates her Mobile, insist, “We don’t use Phones in the house.” But is is positively shocked to encounter Tommy, shackled to a makeshift bed in the basin.

The setup is pure torture porn, and when tommy reacts violently Toward His Captors, he is savagely beateen, satisfying thinks exampectations in the short term. But soon it transpires that is isn’t really who chris is. His backstory is hinted at but left ambiguous; Suffice to say that chris and his have haven’t taken tommy off the streets to kill Him – they actually trying to save Him, albeit in an an unorthodox and non-denominational way.

Tommy doesn’t see that at first, telling chris, “I’m gonna rip off your skull, and i’m gonna stab you in the dick.” But when it is ther Crazily Cheerful Son Jonathan (Kit Rakensen), Tommy Realizes that there is some kind of a salvage plan, and that there will be a chance to escape if he plays along.

This Battle of Wits is at the core of comasa’s film, which ows a little bit a debt to A clockwise orange (The book more than the film). The Longer Tommy Stays Under the Family’s Roof, the most and appears to respond, plowing through the novels that kathryn has laid out for Him. He discover cinema, Having His Evening Ruined on Movie Night by A Screening of Ken Loach’s Tragic Masterpiece This. In time, he is moved upstairs into a BEDROM, Still Chaned by the Neck But Mobile thanks to A Network of Rails that Allow Him to Move from Room to Room.

Like An Early Yorgos Lanthimos, the Strangness of the Premise DES A LOT OF HEAVY LIFTING, but the performers literally character to what Might easily have be a One-Note Movie. Boon is Scarily Convincing As Tommy, Bringing Out the Twin Barrels of Intelligence and Ignorance that Make Him So Dangerous. RisiseBorough is suitably ghost-like as kathryn, who is secretly the Heart and Soul of this misguided mission in which chris is the brain. Fresh from AdolescenceThough, Its Graham Who Steals the Show, USING HIS MINTED EVERYMAN PERSON TO CREEPY EFFECT. Chris is like a more benign jigsaw from the Saw Movies; His Weapon is His Judgment, and – Like a Father from Heaven, or Indeed HELL – His Disappointment is something to be feared.

Title: Good boy
Festival: Toronto (Centrepiece)
Director: Jan Komasa
Screenwriters: Barthek Bartosik, Khalid’s Naqqash
Cast: Stephen Graham, Andrea RiseBorough, Anson Boon, Kit Raken, Monika Frajczyk
Sales Agent: Hanway
TIME RUNNING: 1 HR 50 MINS