Review: Tweens invade the raunchy teen comedy in 'Good Boys'

The 12-year-old protagonists of "Good Boys" have mastered the use of lingo like "lit" and "burn," but they are foggier on just exactly what a tampon is and swear that a nymphomaniac is someone who has sex on land and on sea. They are tantalizingly close to young adulthood and yet tragically far away.

"Good Boys" mines that gulf between childhood and adolescence like few films have before. To be fair, few have even tried quite like this. "Good Boys" is rated R which means, as its marketing has playfully highlighted, that its young stars — Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams, Brady Noon — aren't old enough to see their own movie alone, even though they're the ones launching F-bombs and unwittingly goofing around with sex toys.

That contradiction is at the heart of "Good Boys," a teen comedy about tweens. All of the genre's hallmarks are there, but they've been shifted down a grade or two. The party the kids are trying frantically to get to isn't a kegger but a "kissing party." Bonds of friendship are tested not by the looming separation of college but the onset of middle school cliques.

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Jacob Tremblay, from left, as Max, Keith L. Williams as Lucas and Brady Noon as Thor in the film, "Good Boys," written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and directed by Stupnitsky. (Ed AraquelUniversal Pictures via AP)

And there are slightly different hurdles that stymie their adventures along the way. Whenever the boys encounter the child lock on a medicine bottle, for instance, they're at a complete loss.

"Good Boys" is a kind of mini-me to "Superbad." (Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who wrote "Superbad" are producers.) It's the movie version of a kid wearing clothes many sizes too big. And while it doesn't touch the comic heights of "Superbad," ''Good Boys" is a raunchy good time and probably one of the most faithful cinematic representations of pre-pubescent boyhood.

Max (Tremblay), Thor (Noon) and Lucas (Williams, hysterical) have been friends since kindergarten. They proudly call themselves the Beanbag Boys. They've grown up enough to absorb and reflect much of the world around them, but they haven't yet put the tools together. They misspell "porn" in an internet search. One uses the phrase "social piranha." They think misogyny has something to do with massages.

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Jacob Tremblay, from left, as Max, Keith L. Williams as Lucas, Brady Noon as Thor and Molly Gordon as Hannah in the film, "Good Boys," written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and directed by Stupnitsky. (Ed AraquelUniversal Pictures via AP)

They're trying their best to project adulthood, unaware how far they are from pulling it off.

The kids' desperate desire to make it to that kissing party leads them on a neighborhood odyssey kicked off when their investigations into how one kisses goes array. After losing a drone employed to spy on neighboring teenage girls (Midori Frances, Molly Gordon), they find themselves pursued by them. The girls drugs are inadvertently taken by the Beanbag Boys.

Much of the movie's fun is in how bite-size the hijinks are. In the world of "Good Boys," three sips of a beer is an unfathomable extreme. A game of Spin the Bottle holds all the drama of the Super Bowl. We know that these mountaintop experiences of growing up will soon enough recede as mere molehills, but that doesn't make the adventures of the Beanbag Boys seem any smaller to them.

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Will Forte as Max's dad in the film, "Good Boys," written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and directed by Stupnitsky. (Ed AraquelUniversal Pictures via AP)

The movie sags in the second and third acts but redeems itself with a sweet, even wistful finale not so unlike the conclusion to "Superbad." The Beanbag Boys realize they're passing into a new chapter of life and for a moment they're nostalgic for the innocent time they're leaving behind. Coming of age is hard, even for tweens.

"Good Boys," a Universal Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for strong crude sexual content, drug and alcohol material, and language throughout -- all involving tweens. Running time: 90 minutes. Three stars out of four.

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk's company xAI, as concerns grew among global authorities that it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images.

The moves reflect growing scrutiny of generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text and concern that existing safeguards are failing to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children.

Last week, Grok limited image generation and editing to paying users following a global backlash over sexualized deepfakes of people, but critics say it didn’t fully address the problem.

An emailed request for comment by The Associated Press to xAI resulted in an automated reply from the media support email address which stated, “Legacy Media Lies.” This was the same message received from a different email when asked for comment regarding the global backlash.

Regulators in the two Southeast Asian nations said that existing controls weren't preventing the creation and spread of fake pornographic content, particularly involving women and minors. Indonesia’s government temporarily blocked access to Grok on Saturday, followed by Malaysia on Sunday.

"The government sees nonconsensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity and the safety of citizens in the digital space,” Indonesian Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said in a statement Saturday.

The ministry said the measure was intended to protect women, children and the broader community from fake pornographic content generated using AI.

Initial findings showed that Grok lacks effective safeguards to stop users from creating and distributing pornographic content based on real photos of Indonesian residents, Alexander Sabar, director-general of digital space supervision, said in a separate statement. He said that such practices risk violating privacy and image rights when photos are manipulated or shared without consent, causing psychological, social and reputational harm.

In Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission ordered a temporary restriction on Grok on Sunday, after what it said was “repeated misuse” of the tool to generate obscene, sexually explicit and nonconsensual manipulated images, including content involving women and minors.

The regulator said that notices issued this month to X Corp. and xAI demanding stronger safeguards drew responses that relied mainly on user reporting mechanisms.

“The restriction is imposed as a preventive and proportionate measure while legal and regulatory processes are ongoing,” it said, adding that access will remain blocked until effective safeguards are put in place.

Launched in 2023, Grok is free to use on X. Users can ask it questions on the social media platform and tag posts they’ve directly created or replies to posts from other users. Last summer, the company added an image generator feature, Grok Imagine, that included a so-called spicy mode that can generate adult content.

The Southeast Asian restrictions come amid mounting scrutiny of Grok elsewhere, including in the European Union, the United Kingdom, India and France.

On Monday, the U.K.'s media regulator said that it launched a formal investigation into whether Grok “complied with its duties to protect people in the U.K. from content that is illegal.”

The regulator, Ofcom, said that Grok-generated images of children being sexualized or people being undressed may amount to pornography or child sexual abuse material.

“The content created and shared using Grok in recent days has been deeply disturbing," Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said.

Edna Tarigan reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.

FILE - Workers install lighting on an "X" sign atop the company headquarters, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

FILE - Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Oval Office of the White House, May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)