True/False Films

When We Were Boys

In person: director Sarah Goodman

Sneak preview. In many respects, the boys in Toronto's Royal St. George's College prep school are just like any others. They defy teachers by roaming the halls during class, throw pool parties celebrating the onset of summer and provide questionable insights into Lord of the Flies. But as they discuss airlines and credit cards with the same oblivious ease as they do girls and video games, it becomes clear that they are a class apart. Granted rare access to this cradle of privilege, director Sarah Goodman slowly focuses her camera on pensive, introspective Noah as he navigates a tumultuous new social milieu and deals with an emerging class consciousness. When We Were Boys is a coming-of-age story at once disconcertingly alien and painfully familiar: Take it as evidence no one gets to shirk the awkward and difficult task of growing up. Plays with Big Birding Day (dir. David Wilson; 12 min.), a bromance involving a particular genus of American men, Homo competitivus. (KP)

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