Best Boy, is the fourth feature length film from Montreal based filmmaker Jesse Noah Klein, and deals with the aftermath of a patriarch of a family dying and leaving a strange notarized request to his family in order for them to get an inheritance. 

Following the death of their father, the family convenes back at their now widowed mother’s (Lise Roy) home. The mother pulls out an envelope and reads a notarized letter that was to be read following the original will reading. In it, the father offers up $100,000 to one of his three children if they win the “Best Boy” competition. 

The contest is to see who amongst the children, Lawrence (Aaron Abrams), Phillip (Caroline Dhavernas) and Eli (Marc Bendavid), is most deserving of his affection by pitting them against each other in feats of strength and commitment to best the others no matter what it takes.

Instantly eldest child Lawrence is ready to play the series of twisted games to win back his title of Best Boy. Middle child Phillip (who despite being born female, their father showed his early disdain by giving her a boy’s name) who suffers the most trauma from their messed up childhood bristles at the idea of competing again especially when the last games were held Lawrence almost killed her. Finally Eli sees this as his opportunity to finally win a Best Boy challenge as growing up being the youngest and smallest he was always beaten by Lawrence and Phillip. 

From the get go, Eli, who still lives at home with his parents, throws water on the idea that the $100,000 even exists as the family company was struggling financially, as he handled payroll and had access to the books. Unfortunately the years of abuse and trauma inflicted upon the family by their father leaves doubt in their minds that he may have hidden the money away to force his children participate in one last humiliation ritual in his honour after he passes.

Very quickly we get the rules and lore of the Best Boy contest, with each of the children winning one of the first three events. They were given chapter titles such as “Balance”, which was a race on all fours outdoors, that Phillip wins and during the medal ceremony both Lawrence and Eli strip naked and say in unison “I lost, so I’m a loser”, a deeply humiliating act of not being the best. This was followed up with “Toughness” where the trio sat in a circle hurling the deepest insults one could muster until they tap out, a game no one with siblings would ever willingly play and “Endurance” which consisted of seeing who could hold their breath the longest under water. 

At every turn it was visible that the scars, scabs and gaping emotional wounds the family’s father left upon them all. The mother, enjoying her moment to be the games master complete with viking helmet and cape grins manically watching her children literally almost kill each other for the briefest amount of love given. 

The years of abuse has rendered Phil an alcoholic who ran away from home as a teenager and been estranged ever since, Lawrence with the world’s largest ego after believing that since he was first born is superior in every way possible even though his wife and children may have left him and Eli, who as an adult still wets his bed and hasn’t had sex in over 13 years because he is incapable of allowing someone else into his life. 

This film is watching three siblings know exactly how to get under the skin of one another in ways only the closest people to us can ever do, all in the messed up name of family. Watching Lawrence come so close to being self reflecting and admitting what their father did to them was horrible but then backing off and doubling down is painful to watch, especially as he constantly eggs on the newly sober Phil to drink, with her family clearly being the biggest trigger for her. 

All three siblings portrayed by Abrams, Dhavernas and Bendavid are terrific. It is believable that they grew up together and now can barely stand to be in the same room without exploding into a fit of rage and actual violence. Right from the get go at the funeral, which no one else even attended other than the four remaining family members, Lawrence is asked to be that one that speaks since he was the first born male. He gives a few words of remembrance before singing a Gary Stiles song “Lonely For You” in an awkward show of dominance that causes Phil to leave because it was so physically painful. 

In the end, hard lessons are learned, the kind that can only be faced by looking truth squarely in the face and intense self reflection. Sometimes the trauma is so deep you just need to burn everything to the ground in order to start again. 

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BEST BOY, In Cinemas Friday, May 29th