Good Boy (2025)

Destroy What Destroys You - Good Boy review by griggs

From the synopsis, you know you’re in Kubrick country. Good Boy dares you not to think of A Clockwork Orange, yet still feels like its own thing, darkly comic in places. Stephen Graham leans into it with huge glasses, safari shirt and uncanny wig, like a youth worker bingeing late-night telly.

What really works is how slippery the power dynamic is. Andrea Riseborough gives the film its heart, playing someone who’s both victim and potential avenger, while Anson Boon completes the trio, more fragile and feral than you first assume. The film keeps you asking who’s more damaged, and how much of it is rehabilitation, grooming, or a very elaborate act of payback.

Tonally it wobbles now and then, and one element is frustratingly left hanging, but the unease sticks. The revenge angle is never as clean as you expect, which is exactly the point. You come away feeling like you’ve watched something properly twisted rather than just another “psycho of the week” drama.