Boys

“My dad says if I ever see a gun I have to leave immediately,” says Roland (Cameron Crovetti). He’s a good boy and he aims to take his dad’s advice, but his friend Chris (August Maturo, also outstanding in this year’s Slapface) pleads with him to return to the abandoned boat where they’ve been playing. They don’t have to use the gun. It can stay in the bag. They can just get back to what they were doing before. Chris may well spend the rest of his life wishing he’d taken his dad’s advice.

A simple story reflecting on how easy it is to make mistakes when you’re young – and hinting at the awful consequences of society’s inability to accept that – Luke Benward’s Oscar-qualifying short also addresses the stark social divides in the US and how this can contribute to a skewed understanding of people living in different citrcumstances. It’s ably played by the two young leads, with Crovetti particularly impressive in later scenes where he has barely any dialogue but carries the emotional weight of the film.

Benward shoots from the boys’ height so that adults become looming figures, sometimes threatening, sometimes a source of authority which it seems impossible to resist. The main sets are defined by the kind of clutter which is incredibly hard to assemble intentionally for an organic effect, but it works, doing a lot to set the tone and tell us about the characters. The comparative neatness of Chris’ home echoes a starker view of the world and the very clear, precise instruction he receives there.

One of the hardest things to wrap one’s head around as a child is the gulf between what adults say is right and wrong and what they are ultimately willing to do, especially when they need to protect their children. The kids here simply haven’t acquired enough information to understand the wider context in which decisions are made, and can’t relate to their parents’ priorities, though they may well have picked up their prejudices. Told over the course of a single day, the film observes games played in bright daylight and wide open space before plunging us into darkness and confined spaces in parallel with the development of this inscrutable moral conflict. Early dialogue and an unfortunately heavy handed final line imply that the boys are learning a certain type of masculinity, in contrast with the desert scenes where, for a while, the possibilities seem endless.

With the adults’ performances pared back to allow us to focus on what’s happening to the kids, Boys is a great showcase for its two young stars.