Outfest: ‘Big Boys’ Captures the Awkward Longing of an Earth-Shaking Crush

Queer people often talk about their sexuality being confirmed for them–that “Ring of Keys” moment, if you will. As a teenager or young adult, you may see someone and finally understand what physical attraction means to you, and your head finally catches up to the other sensations your body has been trying to alert you to. Corey Sherman’s feature debut, Big Boys, is openhearted, compassionate, and tuned into true feelings of the heart. It is a crowd-pleaser in the truest sense of the word.

Isaac Krasner plays Jamie, a 14 year old boy trying to figure things out for himself. He will sometimes see the hunky, bear couple across the street bringing in groceries or lighting up their grill. There is immediately a yearning for adulthood that is very relatable and palpable. Jamie is planning for a “cousins only” camping trip for him, his brother Will (Pen15‘s Taj Cross) and their cousin Allie (Dora Madison Burge), and Jamie is alarmed when Will tells him that Allie’s boyfriend, Dan, is tagging along. “They’re just going to be having sex the whole time. Maybe not the whole time–but it’ll be a marathon,” he complains to his mother.

When Jamie meets Dan, however, his attitude completely changes–David Johnson III is a dreamboat. With his scruffy face and deep voice, he doesn’t have to try to exude masculinity, and Jamie becomes desperate to impress him while trying to hide his crush from Will and Allie. Where Jamie is shy and sensitive and stubborn, Will is overly confident. It’s like he read a manual on “how to be a man” or how to impress girls, and you just know he is going to be put in his place when he’s old enough to go to a bar and actually talk to women. “You’re fourteen,” he tells Jamie. “It’s time to get some ass.” Sherman’s film is not just about a young queer kid trying to figure stuff out, but it’s also about how every boy needs to learn, on their own terms, how to grow up. Will can be cruel in his casual homophobia.

Sherman wants to channel the feelings of knowing what you want but not exactly having the proper tools to attain it. Krasner’s performance taps into something really elusive when it comes to that place of excited youth on the way to adulthood. Everyone makes comments about how tall you’ve gotten or “they can’t believe” that you’re getting older, but what does that mean to the person you’re saying it to? Big Boys embraces that uncertainty and Sherman isn’t bashful to lean into Jamie’s journey.

In a really bold and smart move, Sherman shows several sequences where Jamie imagines how he would flirt and try to hook up with Dan if they were the same age. In these moments, Johnson’s Dan is the same age, but another actor is cast as the adult Jamie. It’s almost as if we can hear Jamie begging for time to go faster but desperate for Dan to remain the same–just as he imagined it. “Let me catch up, let me catch up!” we can almost hear Jamie begging. It’s exciting but tinged with sadness and hope.

Krasner is a rare find. He brings a studied, supposed air of sophistication to Jamie, but the character is too young to know what to do with it. You can tell that he will thrive in college when he meets like-minded friends and allies. His performance is truly remarkable. Johnson brings a casual sexiness to Dan, but Sherman doesn’t want him to just be adored. The scenes where Dan and Jamie are alone and they just talk are some of the best of the film, because it shows how one should give back to someone younger. Sherman could’ve made Dan a jerk or given him some toxic traits, but it’s more rewarding for Dan to give back to Jamie.

Big Boys has a huge heart and taps into something quite honest and true. We all want the ones we desire to want us back, and everyone’s road will be full of crushes. Sherman’s film reaches out to hope that those we give our heart to will treat it with care.

Big Boys premieres at Outfest in-person on July 22 at the Directors Guild of America in Theater One.