Old Boys review: Cyrano de Bergerac adaptation set in 1980s public school is sweet and satisfying

Although this Brit romcom finds nothing new to say in revamping a classic, it at least swerves the most obvious pitfalls of the genre

Director: Toby MacDonald. Starring: Alex Lawther, Pauline Etienne, Jonah Hauer-King, Nathen Solly, Giles Malcolm. Cert: 12A, 95 mins

The stories we tell haven’t changed so much over the centuries. Old Boys makes this clear, even if the effect isn’t quite intentional. Old Boys, the feature debut of director Toby MacDonald who earned two Bafta nominations for his short films, sells itself as a new spin on Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac, here transferred to the corridors of a 1980s private school for boys.

In the traditional story, Cyrano – an accomplished, educated gentleman – falls in love with a woman, but fears he’ll be rejected for his abnormally large snout. And so, he covertly woos her by agreeing to help her handsome, airheaded suitor and pen his love letters. In Old Boys, our Cyrano, Alex Lawther’s Amberson, isn’t troubled by his nose, but his monstrous lack of social clout. Yes, he’s a total nerd.

Yet, thanks to this change, the film becomes, note for note, the typical teen romcom, carving the same path of romantically motivated deceit we’ve seen over and over again – take, for example, Netflix’s Sierra Burgess is a Loser, released last year.

This isn’t necessarily a criticism of Old Boys, but its theatrical origins inevitably offer little to differentiate the film from the rest of the pack. The more striking aspect is how MacDonald, alongside screenwriters Luke Ponte and Freddy Syborn, interpret their chosen environment, offering a smart critique of the hazing, chants and traditions of private school boys, who are bred to treat entitlement as a celebrated personality trait. Old Boys treats it as a kind of cult of wealth and masculinity, with its pinnacle being “streamers”, a deranged manifestation of rugby that demands its players climb up a wall and hit a tree stump with a square ball to score points.

It’s a sport that Winchester (Jonah Hauer-King) naturally excels at, since he heralds from an entire clan of “streamers” captains. He serves as the handsome, airheaded suitor of our story, more accurately described by Amberson as a “labrador in trousers” and physically incapable of comprehending life without regular skiing trips.

The target of Amberson and Winchester’s affections is Agnes (Pauline Etienne), whose father is the school’s new French teacher. She’s something of a Nouvelle Vague dream girl, whose idea of courtship is a series of charmingly lo-fi home videos, where she brandishes signs like Bob Dylan and declares: “Take me to the moon.”

Yet, Agnes has too much life to her to be a simple manic pixie dream girl trope. As we discover, she’s just as bewildered as the boys when it comes to teenage infatuations. Similarly, Lawther (always excellent, despite frequently being typecast in this kind of role) elevates Amberson beyond his obvious social awkwardness, finding deeper notes of isolation and desperation.

Even Winchester comes off as a sympathetic character, as Hauer-King knows exactly when to lean into the character’s puppy-like charm. Although Old Boys finds nothing new to say in revamping a classic, it at least swerves the most obvious pitfalls of the genre to deliver a romcom that’s both sweet and satisfying.