August Film Club: Good Boy

This month's pick is Jan Komasa’s, Good Boy. a dark comedy thriller which was released in 2025, starring Stephen Graham and Anson Boone.

The story follows a suburban family who abduct a teenage criminal to rehabilitate him from their basement. Tommy, Anson Boon lives a chaotic life with partying and violence and isn't afraid to show this. He is snatched after a night out to live among their son. Torture is different in this household as Chris, Stephen Graham plays mind games and education. From social media clips of his behavior and school lessons Tommy starts to adapt and develop, starting to soften along the way. 

This film was so refreshing to watch and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thrillers can become repetitive and you can see where it will go. But with this until the very last minute you were on edge to find out how this story is going to end. 

Firstly, Boon’s and Graham's acting was phenomenal. I was in awe of their characters. They did this brilliantly. It was convincing and they most of all created the uneasiness of this film throughout. 

It was interesting to see how this film panned out. It had the power to play mind games with yourself guessing what the awful thing could happen next. And that is for you to find out if it did. You couldn't figure out if this was going to turn a bad corner or if Chris was simply trying to nurture Tommy. The mind games were definitely brought out of the screen too. 

The ending was the real win for me. How it looped back to the moral of the story was a risk. As for a film ending, for some it could go two ways, they either love it or maybe some could hate it. For myself I loved it, I didn’t see it coming but gave a happy ending and brought the message of the film across completely. It wasn't just a story of someone being kidnapped it had a strong message which was elegantly done till the end. 

If there was something I had to pick to change, it would be it could have gone further in some parts. Meaning it could have overstepped lines to make it creepier. But that would defeat the purpose of the film. To make your mind wander is what it did. You were in fight or flight mode without anything essentially going any further than it needed. 

Overall I would rate this 5/5.