Big Boys
Corey Sherman’s debut feature is a coming-of-age comedy-drama that breaks with convention and yields an exceptional lead performance.
Image courtesy of Icon Film Distribution.
In the first half of the 20th century Billy Bunter, the comic creation of the British writer Frank Richards, was for many the most famous schoolboy in the world. He was central to the stories set in Greyfriars School and decidedly fat. Such a boy if seen in works tailored for the cinema would only appear as a subsidiary figure and probably be used simply for comic relief. He would never be the central character. Move forward to the present age and it comes as no surprise that a plump teenager has never featured as the key presence in any of the many gay films about a teenager coming out. Such works are after all usually aimed first and foremost at gay audiences and it makes sense that to attract the attention of gay male viewers a good-looking youngster would be chosen for this kind of role. Big Boys is the first feature from its writer and director Corey Sherman and daringly – but very much to his credit – in choosing to tell a story centred on a 14-year-old boy becoming aware of his gay sexuality he has chosen to make him plump enough to be nobody's idea of a sexually alluring youth. The right casting of this role also required somebody who would make him come across as wholly real and deeply sympathetic. Luckily for Sherman he found Isaac Krasner and his portrayal of this key role proves to be a memorable triumph.
The boy in question is Jamie who lives in California with his mother, Nicole (Emily Deschanel), and with his older brother Will (Taj Cross). This home background is established in the film’s opening scenes which play as a preface after which the title comes up and the rest of the piece is devoted to a camping trip into the San Bernardino Mountains and to Lake Arrowhead. The initial proposal for this outing is that three people should go, namely Will, Jamie and their cousin Allie (Dora Madison). However, that changes when Allie brings along her latest boyfriend, Dan (David Johnson III). His presence will be hugely significant because he is bearded and hairy and this is just the kind of man that Jamie finds attractive. Quite consciously Jamie wants Dan to like him and he plays up to him accordingly hoping thereby to impress him, but he does this without ever recognising what it is that makes him want to do it.
Although he is the younger brother, Jamie is in some respects more mature than Will being far more thoughtful and sensitive to the feelings of others. Will in contrast is decidedly adolescent as is illustrated by the way in which he seizes the opportunity to make contact with two other campers, Quinn (Emma Broz) and Erika (Marion Van Cuyck). Very ready to encourage Jamie to lose his virginity, Will seeks to pair up with these two picking the more conventionally pretty Quinn as his own sexual target and encouraging Jamie to get it on with Erika. In the event being put into a position of potential intimacy with Erika makes Jamie realise his distinct lack of desire for her and he seeks to excuse himself by pretending that he has been drinking too much. This episode is beautifully realised by Sherman since it combines the two main elements that characterise his film: on the one hand it is a sensitive study of burgeoning adolescent emotions and on the other a work which is sympathetically well aware of the humour in the awkward ways of those inexperienced in relationships.
The spot-on casting that applies in the case of Isaac Krasner applies too when it comes to Marion Van Cuyck who perfectly captures the sensitivity of Erika as a girl of real character who knows that others have looks that are far more alluring than hers (indeed one senses that she and Jamie could have been soulmates had a platonic bond been what they were looking for). But, if his lack of any sexual feeling when with Erika is a signal, it is Jamie’s increasing awareness of Dan’s appeal for him that makes him begin to ponder his sexuality. When the two of them are subsequently separated from the others and lose their way in the forest Jamie will finally come to acknowledge to himself that he is indeed gay.
If Sherman defies convention by his choice of Jamie's body image, he surprises no less by the manner of his storytelling. Most gay coming out movies are unadventurous in this respect but Sherman is not. He adopts a distinctly minimalistic style in the sense that his narrative is unhurried and entirely devoid of big gestures and functions instead in the mode of everyday realism. Since Big Boys reaches us somewhat belatedly and dates from 2023, India Donaldson's Good One released in the UK in May 2025 is a later film. Interestingly that too was a deliberately understated piece centred on a trip into the mountains (in that instance the Catskills) but its central character was female, a 17-year-old. It so happens that she was portrayed as a lesbian but sexuality was never a main issue in that drama. Instead, it was a study of a father/daughter relationship and as such it may have been easier for it to win approval for its minimalism. Sherman's film may be a harder sell for, while its gay element is hinted at from the start, it is done so discreetly that some gay viewers may have expectations that are not met here. I would concede that when Sherman indicates Jamie’s feelings through dream scenes in which a fantasy figure of his older self appears it goes against the film’s naturalism. But, if one adapts to the film’s more arthouse approach, there is much here to admire. The excellent casting extends to David Johnson III who hits exactly the right note as Dan and the other supporting players are adept too. Nevertheless, what matters most is that Sherman should have come up with a young central character like Jamie and that he has found in Krasner a young actor fully able to bring him to life.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Isaac Krasner, Dora Madison, David Johnson III, Taj Cross, Emily Deschanel, Marion Van Cuyck, Emma Broz, Homer Marrs, Mike Briggs, Beahr Gerheim, Jack De Sanz.
Dir Corey Sherman, Pro Corey Sherman and Allison Tate, Screenplay Corey Sherman, Ph Gus Bendinelli, Pro Des Rachel Scott, Ed Erik Vogt-Nilsen and Corey Sherman, Music Will Wiesenfeld, Costumes Laiken Landry and Karla Garcia.
Perfect Dog Pictures/The Film Collective-Icon Film Distribution.
89 mins. USA. 2023. US Rel: 31 May 2024. UK Rel: 29 August 2025. Cert. 15.
