'Good Boy' review: Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough reveal a twisted tale of parenting gone wrong

Not to be confused with the dog in a haunted house movie also titled Good Boy, this English thriller brings dark humor to a setup that is absolutely the stuff of trashy true crime shows. 

Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough star as a married couple who, at a distance, might seem to have a blissful life in rural England. On their remote estate, a strong metal gate keeps the mad modern world at bay. Their big home has room enough for a master bedroom with a towering canopy bed, space for their young and lovely son nicknamed "Sunshine," a guest room for a live-in maid, and a roomy basement, perfect for doing laundry and crafting special projects. However, what former cop Chris and his fragile wife Kathryn are working on in the basement is anything but charming. 

Helmed by Polish filmmaker Jan Komasa, Good Boy has plot points in common with Pedro Almodóvar's disturbing psychological thriller The Skin I Live In, with the comedic cheek of a midnight movie. The result is something gnarly, but not quite great.

Wait, what's Good Boy about? 

As teased in the film's first promo image (up top), Good Boy follows the rehabilitation efforts Chris and his family inflict on Tommy (Anson Boon), a 19-year-old hooligan who's been exposing his reckless exploits on social media with no apparent consequence. 

Before we meet Chris' cozy and unconventional family, Good Boy thrusts us into Tommy's chaotic lifestyle. Across a night of partying, the blonde party boy indulges in clubs, drugs, public sex, and violence with a devil-may-care attitude that's less exhilarating and more nauseating. As he limps home, wobbly from embracing damn near every vice, a car lurks behind him, and someone dashes out to grab him. 

From there, Good Boy leaps to another figure who'll fall into this family's realm. An immigrant from Macedonia, Rina (Monika Frajczyk) is considering taking a cleaning job at Chris' home, even though his questions for her include whether or not she has any "distinguishing marks."

A flash in her eyes acknowledges this red flag, but her willingness to brush over it suggests she's got little other choice. From the moment she arrives at Chris and Kathryn's home, she becomes the audience surrogate, guiding us through the house and its more curious aspects, like the boy chained up by his neck in the basement.

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Anson Boon is fascinating as the eponymous good boy. 

There's a trace of Trainspotting in Tommy, specifically his "choose life" attitude that embraces debauchery over civility. Though chained up like a bad dog, he won't make it easy on his captors. Where Rina could be an ally, he's quick to spook her, which sparks a stern talking to from Chris. 

Who Tommy is to Chris and Kathryn is not immediately made clear. Their mission, however, is to break the boy until he's "good." Their methods range from the horrific to the comical. Sometimes Tommy's training involves watching videos about good etiquette created by Chris and his Sunshine (Kit Rakusen). Other times, violent means like a stun gun are brought into play. Acting as if he's being electrocuted is just the edge of the physicality demanded by Boon's role. And he gives every moment a feral intensity.  

As the family grows to trust in Tommy's slow but steady progress, they begin to literally lengthen his leash. This means Boon is sometimes battling the bondage, and other times finding ways to make it work for him. There's an alertness to his eyes that reveals he's not yet broken, even when he's playing nice to appease his captors. Tommy is ferociously alive, and through this, he influences all in the house to embrace something wild in themselves, be it rediscovering their sex drive, their joy, or their curiosity of a world beyond the gates. 

Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough make an odd couple forged in hell. 

Graham is a fantastic bit of casting, as the English actor has played an array of tough guys in productions like Gangs of New York, This Is England, Public Enemies, and A Thousand Blows. More recently, however, he wowed critics and audiences by playing the heartbroken and volatile father in Netflix's harrowing crime mini-series Adolescence. Now, in Good Boy, Graham is doggedly gentle — until he's not. 

Chris certainly prefers the carrot to the stick when it comes to discipline. But the very casting of Graham warns the audience that wielding the stick is inevitable. This threat of violence is echoed in the trembling eyes of his son, whose cheerfulness can snap to terror like a light switch. What's happened in this house before Tommy's arrival may not be spoken, but through the interactions of father and son, it's clear enough. 

Yet Riseborough's role is even more unnerving. At the film's start, she has a boy in her basement and a young woman cleaning her family's mess while she stares out a window, silent and dressed like a Victorian ghost in long, silky white nightgowns. But as Tommy progresses, she blooms like belladonna, donning more modern attire, speaking up, and even delivering her own brand of parenting in soft but stinging tones. 

So, none of this sounds all that funny, right? Well, Good Boy's sense of humor is determinedly dark. Its laughs come mostly from where the absurdity of Chris' plan collides with Tommy's no-fucks-to-give attitude. On the whole, the film's more funny as in strange than funny as in humorous. 

This becomes a bit of an issue as Komasa approaches the film's wild resolution. The ending, while properly disturbing, feels frustratingly unearned, perhaps because the restrained approach to its visual style doesn't support such an outrageous outcome.

The wardrobe and look of the family and their house are tweaked slightly from standard to seem almost a caricature of a happy family. Chris' hair is meticulously combed, his shirt buttoned, jeans pressed, glasses unsmudged, even as he's just directing the delinquent in his basement. Kathryn's attire, meanwhile, gives a sense of Grey Gardens without the funky whiff of decay. Subtle visual clues hint that this family is freaky. But if Komasa had pushed their strangeness more in visuals, his twisted ending might have felt better suited, instead of a bit of a cheat. 

Still, if you're seeking funky and fucked-up entertainment, Good Boy should scratch that late-night movie itch. 

Good Boy was reviewed out of its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.