Big Boys (Review)
I'd really like to know what the experience of watching Big Boys is like for someone who doesn't adore the music of Will Wiesenfeld (aka Baths) – because I sure don't. My love of Will’s music is what led me to this movie, but I’m telling you: it’s so much more than a gorgeous sound bath.
Will started his scoring career very appropriately – by writing the opening theme for Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator, a game about exactly what you'd expect. Big Boys uses its similarly dreamy Wiesenfeld soundtrack to bring you into and guide you through a story that feels spiritually aligned with his previous work. It’s a story that’s warm, funny and occasionally risque, but always hopeful and endearing.
The titular ‘big boys’ are Isaac Krasner’s adorkable Jamie and David Johnson III’s handsome Dan, two characters whose chubbiness is never really remarked upon, but which plays a major role in the psychic landscape of the film. The heat of the California mountains never goes away either. Neither does the awkwardness of intimacy and the palpable anxiety of a young boy’s emerging queerness.
Talking to a friend after we came out of our screening, we inevitably compared Big Boys to Call Me By Your Name (a problematic fave of mine) – because stories about teenagers desiring adults are always risky. But it happens. And sometimes it’s an important part of someone’s journey of self-discovery. In this, his directorial debut, Corey Sherman demonstrates that, with an appropriate level of care and sensitivity, those stories can be told and even celebrated.
If nothing else, I think most people will be able to enjoy Big Boys in a casual viewing; it’s a very easy watch – and, at eighty-nine minutes, it’s well worth your time.
