The official trailer has landed for Heel, which is titled Good Boy in territories such as Australia, the U.K. and Ireland (and no, it’s not the dog-starring horror film). It’s Stephen Graham (Adolescence) back in troubled-father territory, though the young man at the centre of this one isn’t his. Directed by Jan Komasa, whose 2019 film Corpus Christi was nominated for the Best International Feature Film Oscar, the film promises a grim psychological descent that blurs discipline, control, and cruelty. Watch the trailer above, then read on.
A ‘reform’ that quickly turns sinister
The trailer introduces 19-year-old Tommy (Anson Boon, Mobland), a violent, directionless hooligan drifting through a cycle of drugs, parties, and self-destruction. After becoming separated from his friends during a night out, Tommy wakes up chained in the basement of an eerily quiet suburban home.
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His captor is Chris (Graham), who lives there with his wife Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough) and their young son Jonathan (Kit Rakusen). What initially plays like a misguided attempt at discipline soon reveals itself as something far more disturbing. Tommy is subjected to a warped regime of behavioural “correction”, enforced through shackles, surveillance, self-help tapes, and escalating physical punishment.
Stephen Graham on Jan Komasa’s ‘wonderful lunatic’ energy
Graham has spoken openly about what drew him to the project, pointing to Komasa’s unpredictability and the challenge of stepping into a completely different working rhythm. In an interview with Screen Daily, he described the director as “a wonderful lunatic,” saying Komasa could be “frustratingly mad some of the time, then just pure genius and lovely, but in a style and a way of working I’d never experienced.”
He explained that once the cast grasped what Komasa was aiming for, they committed fully to the process. “I think Andrea was the same. And Anson. We were like, ‘Wow, okay,’ but we went with it. We were, ‘Let’s get behind his vision and see what it is,’” Graham said, describing the shoot as an unfamiliar but rewarding experience that ultimately served the film.
Graham also framed Chris and Kathryn’s behaviour as something the characters would rationalise as guidance, even as the film pushes that idea into far uglier territory. “With respect to mine and Andrea’s characters, they’re trying to teach [Tommy] a different way of life, be it in a brutal way,” he said. “But what Tommy thinks is his freedom outside of the world they’ve brought him into, is not really freedom.” Graham added that Tommy has “constructed this character he feels he must be to survive,” describing him as a young man “trying to find a sense of identity.”
Release date
The film premiered on the festival circuit under the title Good Boy, before being retitled Heel for its U.S. release. Heel opens in U.S. cinemas on March 6. Good Boy hits cinemas in the U.K. and Ireland on March 20.
