Movie Review: BIG BOYS

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: February 21st, 2025 / 01:55 AM

BIG BOYS movie poster | ©2025 Dark Star Pictures

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Isaac Krasner, Dora Madison, David Johnson III, Taj Cross, Emily Deschanel, Marion Van Cuyck, Emma Broz, Jack De Sanz
Writer: Corey Sherman
Director: Corey Sherman
Distributor: Dark Star Pictures
Release Date: February 14, 2025 (streaming/digital)

Written and directed by Corey Sherman, BIG BOYS skillfully, sensitively and humorously depicts the kind of life-changing event that sometimes even best friends may never discuss. This isn’t because of embarrassment, but because it’s so hard to put into words.

We’re in Southern California. Fourteen-year-old Jamie (Isaac Krasner) is smart but socially awkward (and a bit of a hypochondriac). His slightly older brother Will (Taj Cross) is much more conventional and reflexively bullies Jamie.

Jamie and Will are slated to spend the weekend camping with their older cousin Allie (Dora Madison). When it turns out Allie is bringing along her boyfriend Dan (David Johnson III), Jamie is at first dismayed. He is sure that Allie will be so preoccupied with romance that she won’t spend any time with her cousins.

But instead, Dan turns out to be cool. Dan doesn’t get upset when Jamie botches pitching a tent and appreciates Jamie’s cooking suggestions. Jamie finds he wants to impress Dan. Then, to his own astonishment, Jamie realizes he seems to have a crush on Dan, though he absolutely doesn’t want to discuss it.

Everything in BIG BOYS is easy, unforced and naturalistic. There is an air of real innocence here, especially in Jamie’s fantasies about being a grown-up (played by a genial Jack De Sanz). His notions of adult romance are sweet and sometimes hilarious.

Even when Will decides it’s his mission to see to it that Jamie “hooks up” with a young woman (Marion Van Cuyck) from a campsite down the road, so that Will can “hook up” with her friend (Emma Broz), it feels lifelike. We see this from Jamie’s point of view. Without him articulating it, we can tell that he accepts Will’s actions but also knows this is a world that’s alien to him.

All the character interactions are proportionate to the situations. Whether or not the viewer has ever been camping, the fraternal and extended family dynamics are immediately recognizable and modulated at realistic levels.

Krasner is wonderfully authentic. He and filmmaker Sherman imbue Jamie with a kind of rectitude that shines through. Jamie may freak out and think a skinned knee means he’ll have to be hospitalized, but it’s done with a conviction that makes it much funnier than playing it for laughs.

Cross shows the insecurity behind Will’s popular kid bravado, Madison has warmth, and Johnson is likable and laid-back as Dan.

Sherman also helps us see the appeal of the forest environment. It may not be the most lovely, dark and deep woods we’ve ever encountered, but it’s sufficiently wild enough to ignite Jamie’s adventurous side.

BIG BOYS is full of low-key charm and authenticity. It is entirely specific in its chronicle of a few days in Jamie’s life, but there’s something universal in its observations.

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