A One Mann’s Movies review of “Good Boy” (From the 2025 London Film Festival). (2025, 4*, ’15’).
There exists an opportunity for massive confusion with this one, since another 2025 movie called “Good Boy” – a supernatural horror film about a golden Labrador called Indy – is also out at the moment. (In fact, I believe it was a recent “Secret Screening” at Cineworld/Odeon cinemas.) THIS IS NOT THAT FILM! I was so confused that I’d already drafted a template for this review, complete with cute doggie pictures, that I have now had to completely rework!
While I suspect THIS “Good Boy” will not get released until next year, I’d have thought that director Jan Komasa could do with perhaps performing a late-stage retitle of the piece. Perhaps he could retitle it “Bad Apples 2”, given that it strangely bears so much similarity in plot to the Saoirse Ronan film I saw immediately prior to this!
Anyhoo, this movie is a gritty but darkly comic tale of revenge and potential salvation. And excellent it is too, one of my favourites so far at the LFF.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
Tommy (Anson Boon) is a disgusting yob, causing havoc of a night in the city centre. But then he finds himself captured, drugged and chained in the basement of a country house.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: NR. (The film has not yet been rated by the BBFC but I would expect it to be a ’15’ for strong language, violence and some child abuse (non-sexual).)
Talent:
Starring: Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Anson Boon, Kit Rakusen.
Directed by: Jan Komasa.
Written by: Bartek Bartosik & Naqqash Khalid.
Running Time: 1h 50m.
Summary:
Positives:
- Paints a thoroughly unpleasant picture of Tommy, such that you feel you are – to a degree – complicit with Chris and Kathryn!
- Superb acting performances from the four primary leads, including young Kit Rakusen.
- Much is left deliberately vague.
- A superb music score.
Negatives:
- The stuff that is left deliberately vague might frustrate some viewers!
- Kathryn was not the character I thought she’d be.
Full Review of “Good Boy”:
The “What?” is easy; the “Why?” is more challenging.
It’s a pretty easy premise to understand. The first few minutes of the film shows Tommy (Anson Boon) being a disgusting yobbish thug. The sort of person that Singapore police would whisk off the streets and deliver a damn good thrashing to! But we are less authoritarian here: the guy has never been fingered by the police for any of his misdemeanours. As such, what happens to him feels like rough justice: Chris (Stephen Graham) whisks him off the streets and chains him up in the basement of his country house.
But the question is “Why?” Why was Tommy in particular chosen? Why are Chris and Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough) set on ‘re-educating’ him? What is the background story here? All of this is teased at, but never really fully answered. This might be intriguing to some viewers (it was to me) but frustrating to others.
That frustration might be stoked by a whole host of little details in the script that you *expect* to drop into the plot: for example, the iPhones stored in the safe and the “zero waste” and green policies of the house. But they never do. They are purely there to add colour and character to the film.
An independent observer.
Some of this is seen through the eyes of a Macedonian cleaning girl, Trina (Lisa Dwan), who becomes an unwilling accomplice to the strange family’s perverse plan. Trina acts as our proxy view of all of the madness and her reasons for going along with the scheme are well-explained by the script. Trina’s outcome is also another one of those vague things which is never explained.
An acting masterclass.
Stephen Graham is one of our finest character actors and he proves it here with a magnificent performance as the slightly deranged Chris, complete with dodgy ‘syrup’ on his head! No one can change from mild-mannered to brutal quicker than Graham. It’s an art.
Also impressive is Andrea Riseborough although I found her character, Kathryn, rather less well defined. At the start of the film, she is almost catatonic which I suspected to be brain damage (desperately trying to put two and two together). But then, to my surprise, she started talking and getting much more involved in the plot. I couldn’t quite understand the logic: it almost appeared as if the writers had had a change of heart on page 15 and didn’t go back to amend the earlier pages!
Also impressive is young Kit Rakusen playing their son Jonathan. It’s a challenging role and one he carries off superbly. Rakusen already has an impressive CV and will be an actor to watch in ten years time if he keeps it up.
The music.
I also absolutely loved the music score for this one by Abel (“Nocturnal Animals“) Korzeniowski. It contains a mesmerising little motif that plays throughout and over the end titles that is simply lovely.
Production Logos.
As an aside, I think this film probably holds the record for the most production logos I’ve seen at the start of a film this year. They go on and on and on and on, for what must be two or three minutes! A chance to repost my link to the classic Family Guy clip!
Summary Thoughts:
A really surprisingly engrossing film that wasn’t afraid to leave loose ends flapping in the wind. “Bad Apples” ended with a bit of a cliff-hanger; In “Good Boy”, the ending was much better defined but nonetheless intriguing.
Tickets for the London Film Festival showings for tonight (9th) and the 11th October are currently sold out, but here is the booking web site to check for returns or other showings.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
There is no trailer for the film yet, but here is a clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFKM09QaUbc.
Subscribe
Don’t forget, you can subscribe to One Mann’s Movies to receive future reviews by email right here. No salesman will call!
