Final Rating: 3.5/5
Best Boy is a darkly comic story of familial turmoil from director and screenwriter Jesse Noah Klein. After their father’s (Dylan Smith) passing, Lawrence (Aaron Abrams) Eli (Marc Bendavid) and Philip (Caroline Dhavernas) gather at the family cottage.
According to his will he has left one hundred thousand dollars to the winner of a contest originally implemented when they were growing up, Best Boy. The victor is to be determined by their mother (Lise Roy), since (as his will points out) he has no other option. His rules, ranging from no affection, to no ties in any manner of competition, are the type of misguided, ‘strong man’ ideals indicative of someone misogynistic enough to bestow his daughter a masculine name as he desired only to have boys.
They set about these challenges which include balance, toughness, endurance and strength, each with their own motivations. The tasks are carried out in a theatrical, darkly comical manner, as if imbued with Olympic level significance, complete with a medal type presentation and podium (foot stool). Their mother dons a horned helmet and dark blue cape as she oversees the proceedings, reading Hebrew from a scroll. It all exudes a kitschy sense, none of which would be complete without a humiliation ritual, stripping naked and declaring yourself a loser after losing an event.
The film lays bare the reality of family dynamics and that nobody knows how better to push your buttons, or where your weakness resides. It also, in no subtle way, looks at the nature of our environment and how one is raised in relation to how we inevitably turn out as individuals. The children all seek in some way to grow beyond their upbringing, while Lawrence vies to prove himself to a father who never truly loved them, even asking his mother at one point why she doesn’t. His nature is to put on a brave front, or brag about having his wife and kids which in his eyes, and by proxy his father’s, makes him more successful than his siblings who are alone. However, at times he reverts to an almost childlike nature, overcome with emotion, a man desperate for approval.
This struggle takes on a much deeper meaning, imbued with a desire for freedom and escaping the trauma of their past and what this environment has imbedded in them. Philip, a recovering alcoholic, who we can safely assume used it to cope with her upbringing, is fighting to remain sober amid these stressful circumstances. She has been away from the family for a while and is the only member not involved in their family business. This is presented as her being lost when chastised, but can easily be seen as trying to find herself separate from these constraints.
Eli is the youngest and still living at home in his thirties. Like Lawrence, he too works for the family business. He is special in his mother’s eyes as he’s always been the good child, and for him, winning would help to prove himself in respect to his older siblings, who alternated winning Best Boy when they were young. He and Philip were closer growing up, and while this hasn’t prevented a certain amount of sibling rivalry, it casts Lawrence in a more solitary light, as he’s most adherent to their father’s wishes when they point out how absurd this is.
Their mother is a stoic woman who has been under the thumb of a domineering husband and so, like her children, has come to the realization of trying to move forward for herself. At one point she mentions to Philip she is envious of her because she got away, when she herself was unable to do so. Her character, like the rest, speaks in an expository manner about the past, and the film does have the tendency to tell not show in this regard. It also raises questions around the money, and without spoiling too much, it’s possible effect.
The cast do a great job of portraying not only their trauma, even if the manner in which it is portrayed is a bit on the nose at various points, but there is some depth there as well, and their sentiments are understandable given their history. It’s also entirely focused on them, as aside from the funeral director (Mario Dallaire) the only cast is the family, which helps keep the narrative concise.
We will all undoubtedly recognize aspects of our own familial relations, ideally less chaotic, but present nonetheless. It emphasises the notion of how much we are trying to win the approval of our parents or similar figures in any manner, and what that does to motivate us, something we’ve no doubt asked ourselves at some point.
Thank you to Route504 for the screener.
