Hey Boys (2018)

If the Male Gaze Were a Movie

Let's be real, this film has a very specific audience, and that's cishet men. That is not to say that no one else can enjoy this film. I must say I quite enjoyed it, much to my chagrin, and the 6.5 is indicative of that.

What led me to watch this film despite the tropey romcom blurb were the three main leads, all amazing actors in their own right. Alas, the performances are what make or break a film, and in this film's case, they very much made it.

On to the story, or lack thereof, if you're interested in enjoying the film, don't think too hard about the logistics of the entire plan, because it is incredibly stupid. The writing (I'll bet my non existent million dollars is also by a dude) makes no sense even from a romcom perspective, and there's barely enough scenes with the two leads to make their love story convincing. Dong Zijian and Elaine Zhong get props for trying their best to make something out of nothing, because they did have some chemistry together.

On the other hand, what this film does have are boobs, tons of them. Also problematic dialogues like the second female lead saying that women and airplanes are one and the same, thank you for taking us back to the dark ages, madame. You have your manic pixie dream girls, your simpleton who, for some reason has two incredibly gorgeous, accomplished women fawning for him despite having the personality of wet cardboard, and two dudebros who honestly got better character development than the entire leads' arc.

So there you have it. Take it as you will. In case you're not a reader and are more of a visual learner, just check out the thumbnail of the YouTube video posted in the comments below that has the link to the entire film. It will perfectly illustrate everything this movie is about.

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