Good Boy

I've watched Good Boy in Lisbon during the horror festival MotelX. I had some expectations because the whole idea of having someone dressing up as a dog called my attention while scrolling through the movie list.

The flick starts great - the cinematography, atmosphere, acting and humorous moments felt truly genuine and you could feel the audience feeling it as well.

It keeps you curious on why the hell this guy has a person in his house wearing a dog custom, and your imagination starts wondering if it's really a human or another "thing".

It develops pretty well and you can tell the moment when it all turns south, this is perhaps the part that I didn't enjoy so much. When we all knew what was going on, I felt the acting went a bit too much and not in the best way. In my opinion, it didn't reach that "insane" psychopath status that leaves actors in the best performance lists. Even though there were some good parts in it.

Overall, still one of the best horror flicks I've watched this year, much more interesting than most high budget movies out there. Someone mentioned it was Viljar Bøe 3rd movie, which is insane in my perspective, in a good way.

Girl meets boy through a dating app only to find he lives with someone who believes himself a dog.

The bizarre premise is what brought me to this movie. It does a good job keeping you entertained and curious. The nature of the plot is unsettling enough to give this movie a chance. The dog costume, though simple, is disturbing, to say the least, as are many of the situations seen throughout the movie. However, I feel the end result is a wasted opportunity. The premise was a perfect recipe to make a disturbing movie. Good Boys has its moments, but in the end, it fails to deliver. The ending was not good.

This movie could've been creepy, unsettling, could've been one of those that keeps you guessing with twists, turns and thrilling suspense. It was heading that way, at least.

But then, halfway through the movie, most is revealed in a short and not at all shocking scene and that's it. You're left with no questions about what's actually happening, there wasn't enough build up, there wasn't enough guessing, it went from "an unusual but OK situation" to "an unusual and BAD situation" without any real development from one to the other. There are no great discoveries, no "I didn't see this coming", there's no gradual uncovering of the truth. It feels rushed and half assed, feels like the writer had all this creepy story planned out but got lazy halfway through it.

And from then the movie starts tripping and falling over the typical thriller/horror movie unnerving cliches that just make you angry at the victims for their utter incompetence and stupidity. And that's how it ends, as a predictable lazy attempt at what could've been great.

This is a lean, taut suspense film--only 80 minutes long, and more than half of that is truly suspenseful and unnerving. There are only four actors in the movie, and they all do an excellent job of seeming like real people with real motivations, blind spots, and flaws. For the most part, writer/director Viljar Bøe does an excellent job of showing us things that don't quite make sense and convincing us that it's not necessarily irrational or unreasonable. He creates a feeling akin to being seduced into a toxic relationship, where in hindsight you realize how abundant all the red flags were but in the moment you're willing to rationalize and excuse every individual one. If this is allegorical horror, then its allegory is for the poor "NTA" victims on the Reddit thread "Am I The A**H***?", who post detailed narratives of having been gaslit by psychopaths yet seem totally clueless about the blame not being their own.

That said, once the mystery is revealed about midway through the movie, the movie does lose a great deal of its suspense as characters quickly devolve into horror movie stereotypes. While the second half is disappointing, it's not so bad that it brings the whole film down--plus, the final moments are fresh and surprising enough that they'll guarantee the film's haunting images will stick with you for a few days. On top of that, Bøe's writing wisely leaves a lot of backstory unsaid, leaving audiences with plenty of queasy questions that they won't want to think about the answers to. A lesser film would feel the need to tidy things up more.

I'd recommend this for anyone who's into disturbing thrillers. The strong acting, masterful editing, and original premise are enough to earn a solid recommendation, even if the final act doesn't fully live up to the movie's promised potential. I eagerly anticipate Bøe's next film.

I tend to not do spoilers, so I won't spoil. Within 5 minutes, I was absolutely captivated. It's rare to watch a movie that I picked at random and say to myself "WTF?.... Oh, yes!".

Now, that may suggest there is something wrong with me, I'm not sure - but all I can say is that Good Boy is a rare find. It's truly original, not necessarily in a good way, but original.

This is not only a sick film, twisted in so many ways, but the acting, direction, plot twists, and well - the whole thing is something to be enjoyed. Excellent production quality and the scenery is quite lovely from an American's view.

All I can say is that I think you will come away loving your dog even more - although I'm not sure that has anything to do with anything.