When a picture-perfect middle-class family turns out to be dangerously twisted behind closed doors, Jan Komasa's darkly funny psychological thriller asks who really needs ‘fixing’... and how far is too far.
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Bracingly wicked... An absurdist nightmare... Like something from the age of Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange.
The Good Boy 2025
Heel
Polish Director, Jan Komasa (Corpus Christi NZIFF 2020), whips up a tense psychological thriller with a dark undercurrent of British humor as we’re introduced to Tommy (Anson Boon), a rebellious teen and a narcissistic criminal. Tommy is on a path of destruction, amplified by drugs, alcohol and equally volatile friends, until one day, he wakes up in a basement with a chain around his neck.
His captors are a clean-cut middle-class family with a goal of rehabilitating him a-la-Clockwork Orange, using videos of his own crimes and motivational content alongside classic literature. Stephen Graham (Adolescence) gives a thrilling and nuanced performance as Chris, the head of the family and a man obsessed with morality, even at the cost of the sanity of his family, dealing out absurd punishments to Tommy mixed with moments of tenderness.
As the film progresses, we’re left to wonder if Tommy really is capable of change (or merely playing the part to please his captors) and to ponder what trauma has caused his captors to embark on this moral crusade of madness.
– Jordan Salomen