Stephen Graham has a "deeply compelling" British thriller coming up that you'll want to know all about.
Good Boy focuses on a 19-year-old criminal (played by Pistol's Anson Boon) who is kidnapped by a stranger and forced into rehabilitation within a dysfunctional family dynamic.
The movie comes from Warsaw 44 and Suicide Room director Jan Komasa, with a screenplay by Bartek Bartosik and In Camera's Naqqash Khalid.
The Last Emperor's Jeremy Thomas, and EO's Jerzy Skolimowski and Ewa Piaskowska are on board as producers, while Recorded Picture Company (EO, High-Rise) and Skopia Film are behind the movie.
Good Boy has just had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it has been getting largely positive first reactions from critics.
Screen International said there was "something deeply compelling about this deliberately odd, carefully-calibrated neo-gothic fable", which "suggests that rehabilitation can be found in the darkest of places, and that true freedom is simply a matter of trust".
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TheWrap praised the acting, saying the movie is "exceptional when it comes to the powerhouse acting abilities of Graham and Boon, both of whom take on their roles to showcase opposite ends of the rehabilitation spectrum".
"Like an early Yorgos Lanthimos, the strangeness of the premise does a lot of heavy lifting, but the performers literally bring character to what might easily have been a one-note movie," added Deadline.
Meanwhile, Film Festival Today wrote: "Good Boy pleasantly surprises in the way it spins out its story threads. There is more to Tommy than we originally thought, and more to the movie, too. Some of it strains credulity, all of it holds our attention."
What is Good Boy about?
Good Boy focuses on teenage hooligan Tommy, who "revels in a life of drugs, parties, and violence" – though while on a bender one night with his friends "he becomes separated from the group and is abducted by an unknown figure (Graham)".
"Though he is no stranger to inflicting violence, he is enraged and horrified when he wakes to find himself chained in the basement of the isolated suburban family home of Chris (Graham), his near-spectral wife Kathryn, and their young son Jonathan," the synopsis adds (via Rotten Tomatoes).
"The family sets out to reform Tommy's unruly behavior, forcing him to comply with their relentless mind games or seek escape at any cost."
Who else is in Good Boy?
Alongside Graham as Chris and Boon as Tommy, Good Boy also stars:
• Andrea Riseborough (The Regime) as Kathryn
• Callum Booth-Ford (Peaky Blinders) as Ste
• Kit Rakusen (The Phoenician Scheme) as Jonathan
• Austin Haynes (Unforgivable)
When will Good Boy be released?
A general UK cinema release date is yet to be confirmed, though it will have its first British screenings at next month's BFI London Film Festival on Thursday, 9 October and Saturday, 11 October. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, 16 September.
Good Boy is yet to confirm a release date.
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Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International. Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i' as a sub-editor.
