Good Boys

‘Good Boys’ offers a raw and tender exploration of male friendship, desire and insecurity, blending documentary observation with found and constructed footage to challenge conventional depictions of modern masculinity. The film follows two young ‘bros’ as they navigate intimate conversations about vulnerability, sexuality, and connection, in a culture where masculine ideals both traditional and modern, obscure pain and authenticity.

Berlin is the capital of FLINTA culture, where expressions and veils of identity vie for influence in club and art scenes where queerness is elevated. Young men, raised on reactionary online platforms and drenched in the machismo of cinema, martial arts and contemporary bro culture find themselves inhabiting wildly contrasting personas and forms of expression. The ‘Good Boys’ conversation is saturated with yearning, braggadociousness, and drenched in late millennial irony. How much of their conversation is real? How much performative? How do their ideologies conflict with their revealed preferences?

The film engages with an emerging Berlin underground movement of deeply personal, observational, yet cinematically literate lofi films - including works by filmmakers like Jean Michel Brawand, Atanáz Babinchak and Danting Chen. It’s also a product of the Dublin contemporary experimental scene where a new generation of filmmaker are producing confrontational, often humorous explorations of film technique and contemporary culture.

By juxtaposing the protagonists' contemporary experiences with archival footage from 1950s public information films and advertisements, "Good Boys" creates a layered narrative that critiques how outdated notions of masculinity still shape our present-day relationships. Using mid-century media as both mirror and foil, underscoring how far societal ideals of manhood have come—and, at times, how little they’ve evolved.

This reflective détournement deconstructs historical portrayals of gender, prompting audiences to question the authenticity of prescribed roles. In the process, the film aligns with contemporary practices that engage with archival materials to probe issues of identity, representation, and power.

Through its sensitive portrayal of male friendship and desire, "Good Boys" becomes a timely meditation on the fragile intersections of masculinity, sexuality, and intimacy. The film's nuanced observational approach invites viewers to reconsider how deeply ingrained cultural narratives affect not only the individual but also the collective understanding of what it means to be a man today.