Bad Boy

Dean (Guy Menaster), a young teen living with his mother (Neta Plotnik) and younger brother, prepares to turn in for the night when a knock on the door changes his life forever. Correctional officers storm into his room and haul him, barely clothed, out of the house.

While Dean may be sharp-tongued and unafraid to spit in the eye of authority, his vulnerabilities surface when he arrives at a fortress-like juvenile detention facility. As he’s given the “tour” of his new home, Dean passes an inmate in solitary confinement: Zoro (Havtamo Freda), who’s regarded by the rest of the inmates as a psychotic, cold-blooded killer. After awakening to a horrific act of violence on his first morning inside, Dean quickly becomes entangled in the inner workings of the system. What’s the price of silence? Who can you trust? How much of yourself can you protect in a place designed to break you? As Dean and Zoro’s paths begin to intertwine, each boy will use what they have ― humour, notoriety, a world-weary wisdom ― to stay alive. As an adult, Dean (Daniel Chen) maintains a career as a successful comedian, but his traumatic past threatens to resurface and destroy the life he’s built beyond the walls of the detention centre.

Co-created by Ron Leshem, the screenwriter and producer of the Israeli series upon which HBO’s Euphoria is based, and Hagar Ben-Asher (The Slut), Bad Boy creates a stunning portrait of young men trying to hold onto humanity in a brutal world.

GEOFF MACNAUGHTON

Official Selection, 2023 Toronto International Film Festival

Content advisory: violence, mature themes, drug use, bullying