Good Kids (2016)

Good Kids is a sunny, slightly chaotic graduation comedy that understands the sweet panic of realizing you’ve been “good” for so long you never actually lived. It rides on the easy chemistry of its four leads—Nicholas Braun’s anxious sincerity, Zoey Deutch’s sharp charm, and Mateo Arias’ wild-card energy—turning what could’ve been a checklist of teen hijinks into something breezy and oddly relatable about trying on new versions of yourself. The vibe is playful and a little raunchy, but it keeps a surprisingly warm heart, rooting for friendship even as the summer experiments get messy. If you want a deep, subversive coming-of-age film, this isn’t that; but if you’re on the fence and in the mood for a light, likable romp with a few honest laughs about post-high-school reinvention, it’s an easy yes.

Good Kids is aiming for a coming-of-age comedy about four “good” students trying to cram an entire missed high-school party life into one reckless summer, and you can feel the movie wanting to be both raunchy and oddly sincere about growing up. The problem is it leans hard on familiar teen-comedy beats and contrived escalations, so a lot of the chaos feels more like a checklist of wild experiences than something that naturally builds from the characters. If you’re not into sex-and-drugs humor, awkward cringe situations, or a story that treats bad decisions as the main engine for laughs, this will likely test your patience. That said, the cast is likable (Zoey Deutch in particular brings some spark), and if you just want an easy, breezy post-graduation hangout movie without expecting anything sharp or fresh, it’s serviceable.