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Tag: boys

  • When Boys Are Taught Not to Feel: The Cost of ‘Being a Man’

    For generations, many boys have been taught the same lesson—sometimes explicitly, often subtly: don’t cry, don’t be scared, don’t be emotional. Sadness is brushed off. Fear is minimized. Vulnerability is framed as weakness.

    But what happens when we raise boys this way?

    When boys are told they shouldn’t cry when they are sad or admit fear when they feel unsafe, we aren’t making them strong—we are teaching them to disconnect from themselves. Over time, this disconnect can grow into something far more damaging: a lack of emotional intelligence.

    When Emotions Are Invalidated

    Many boys receive the message, “Your emotions are wrong.”
    Or worse: “You can’t trust what you feel.”

    Parents and caregivers may say things like:

    • “You’re fine.”
    • “That’s nothing to cry about.”
    • “Be a man.”
    • “Don’t be scared.”

    While often well-intentioned, these responses invalidate a child’s inner experience. According to Dr. John Gottman’s research on Emotion Coaching, when children’s emotions are dismissed or minimized, they don’t learn how to understand or regulate those emotions, and they learn to ignore them.

    But emotions don’t disappear when ignored. They simply go underground.

    The Cost of Emotional Disconnection

    Boys who grow up not knowing what they feel—or believing they shouldn’t trust their emotions—are more likely to:

    • Enter dangerous situations because fear is dismissed rather than honored
    • Struggle to identify their needs
    • Suppress sadness until it emerges as anger, numbness, or risk-taking
    • Have difficulty forming healthy, emotionally connected relationships

    When we raise boys to override their internal signals, we remove one of their most important survival tools.

    Emotions Are Not the Problem

    All emotions are a gift. They exist for a reason.

    Fear keeps us safe.
    Sadness signals loss and the need for connection.
    Anger highlights boundaries that have been crossed.
    Joy points us toward meaning and purpose.

    Emotions are information. They guide us toward what matters and help us navigate the world with awareness. When boys are taught to listen to their emotions rather than suppress them, they develop resilience—not fragility.

    Kendra Han

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  • All the celebrity red-carpet looks at the 2025 Emmy Awards

    All the celebrity red-carpet looks at the 2025 Emmy Awards

    TV’s biggest night is always one of the starriest red carpets of the year

    Have you watched all the shows? I’ve seen *** lot of commercials of the show. If you’re like Emmy host Nate Bargetzy and haven’t seen all the nominated shows, well, you might still watch the Emmy Awards for this. You’re making *** $100,000 donation to the Boys and Girls Club of America, which is amazing that you’re doing that, but there’s *** catch. Bargetzi says for every Emmy winner’s acceptance speech that exceeds the allotted 45 seconds. And Perfect choice of music. The donation shrinks by $1000 per second. Ouch, deposit too. If they go under, we will put money on top of it. So I would prefer them not all go that under because that can get pretty expensive and the amount of money I give the Boys and Girls Club is totally up to all of Hollywood. Either way, Bargetsi can afford it. He’s currently Billboard’s number one selling stand-up comic in America. His tour grossed more than $80 million last year alone. For his first Hollywood hosting gig. He’s getting advice from veterans like Nicki Glazer, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and Conan O’Brien. They’re all just kind of like, you just got to be you and trust that you know what you’re doing. Fortunate to learn that in other settings and so I don’t have to hopefully not learn it, you know, in front of Harrison Ford, right? Bargetsi says, sure, he’ll joke. About Hollywood, but in his trademark polite style like the cancellation of nominee Stephen Colbert’s late night show. Is that off limits, or are you going to address it? I think we’ll say something, but it’ll be done in *** fun, playful way. That family friendly comedic style has helped the Tennessee native gain wide appeal in an era where comedy often divides audiences. Barhetsi met his wife while working at Applebee’s. Welcome. And his daughter introduces him in many of his shows. His father was *** magician and *** clown. I have to ask, did you have *** fear of clowns growing up, because *** lot of kids do. I had *** joke about like I would say, have you ever been yelled at by *** clown because I have. And it’s pretty confusing to get yelled at by *** guy that’s got *** smile painted on his face. Bargetsi doesn’t fear the Emmy stage. In fact, this star can’t wait to be starstruck. Who are you excited to see? Ben Stiller? I’m excited to see. Well, Severance has the most nominations, so you will definitely meet Ben Stiller. We should cross paths, yes.

    All the celebrity red-carpet looks at the 2025 Emmy Awards

    TV’s biggest night is always one of the starriest red carpets of the year

    Updated: 3:55 PM PDT Sep 14, 2025

    Editorial Standards

    TV’s biggest night is back. The 77th annual Primetime Emmy Awards are here, and we’re rounding up all the looks as Hollywood’s biggest stars hit the red carpet at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

    Tonight, Apple TV+’s “Severance” leads the pack with a whopping 27 nominations, followed by The Penguin with 24 nods, “The White Lotus” and “The Studio” with 23 and “The Last of Us” with 16 nominations.

    Comedian Nate Bargatze will serve as host, with a few starry figures set to present, including Jenna Ortega and Hunter Schafer. Meanwhile, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen will be honored with the prestigious Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, while there are plenty of A-list nominees, from Jean Smart and Kathy Bates to Adam Brody and Jake Gyllenhaal.

    Ahead, we’ve rounded up all the red-carpet looks from the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards. Keep checking back throughout the night as we update with more looks.

    5

    Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor

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  • American boys are falling behind girls at school — and that has long-term effects on their health

    American boys are falling behind girls at school — and that has long-term effects on their health

    I’m excited. My 8-year-old grandson Luca has taken up cross country running and I’m looking forward to joining him on training runs and local 5K races. We’ve already got one booked for October. As one who didn’t discover the physical and therapeutic benefits of running until college, my vision is that Luca develops a healthy habit that he can sustain well into adulthood.

    I’m equally excited about the opportunity to be a supportive and positive voice, a thought that motivates me to keep up my own running regimen and healthy behavior. Boosting my thrill is research describing the importance of male role models for boys and the positive impact produced by loving fathers and grandfathers.

    Yet, with all this positivity, my thinking is tempered by a rapidly emerging consensus that boys today are at risk. It’s a point with implications for not only grandfathers, but fathers, uncles, stepdads, foster fathers, coaches, teachers and any man in a position to make a positive contribution to the life of a young man.

    Turns out, my personal interest in bonding with Luca in a new way comes at a time when the well-being of boys is being labeled a crisis. To me, this represents a call to action for men of all ages to do our part to help shape the future of the boys in our lives. It’s a call that can impact boys while conveying benefits to the men who get engaged.

    Defining the educational crisis boys are facing

    According to the American Institute for Boys and Men, boys are struggling at school and have fallen well behind girls in academic achievement. There is a 14% gap in school readiness between boys and girls at age 5. Boys have lower grade point averages than girls throughout their K-12 educations. Boys are less likely to take advanced-placement courses and less likely to graduate high school. Women make up the majority of students on America’s college campuses, a gap of 15% between young men and women.

    It gets worse. AIBM also notes that in the average school district, boys are almost a grade level behind girls in English language arts (there is no gap in Math), and that the risk of suicide is four times higher for boys and young men than their female peers — and has risen by 40% among younger men since 2010. The severity of this problem prompted Melinda French Gates to announce funding for AIBM earlier this year as part of a gender equality initiative to better help boys achieve as highly as girls.

    Louis Bezich LucaProvided Image/Louis Bezich

    Louis Bezich with his grandson Luca.

    Beyond educational achievement and suicide statistics, the difference between boys and girls has additional implications for a boy’s health and well-being. The American Psychological Association says that “the implications of the disparities between boys and girls are huge. Doing poorly at school is strongly associated with major challenges later in life, including addiction, mental and physical health problems, and involvement with the criminal justice system — problems that also have ripple effects on society at large.”

    A piece published in the Columbia Political Review in 2021 suggested the poor state of U.S. boys can be traced to the American educational system, which perpetuates gender norms that overlook the harm that they inflict on boys. Predominant among these stereotypes is that boys misbehave more. That has translated into a number of concerning outcomes which constitute the crisis.

    The outcomes, the article states, include a high rate of failing grades, boys comprising the majority of students labeled as learning disabled, and a dropout rate 40% more frequent than girls. All of this because boys have a propensity to misbehave and consequently are more likely to be punished and receive harsher treatment. Further complicating the gender disparity is a creativity crisis in which girls outperform boys in schools that overvalue obedience and disincentivize creativity, because social norms categorize girls as more submissive. 

    The article concludes that children are being groomed to be submissive to authority rather than developing independent thought. Further, it argues that this culture of obedience has doubled the rate of ADHD diagnosis in boys. A failure to accommodate students with behavioral problems has resulted in misdiagnosed boys placed in decelerated learning environments.

    Potential solutions to the crisis

    Richard Reeves, a scholar at the Brookings Institute, is the president of the American Institute for Boys and Men and the author of “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It.” He believes that gender gaps exist between boys and girls (and men and women) in both directions, and that efforts at gender equality should extend to boys and men. 

    Reeves believes that there are specific actions that educators can take to close the gap between boys and girls. They include “redshirting” boys by having them start school a year later than girls, recruiting more men (especially African American men) as teachers, and generally getting more men into female-dominated jobs in health, education, administration and literacy while continuing to increase women’s participation in STEM fields.

    The American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Boys in School echoes Reeves’ thoughts on redshirting and offers additional school-based initiatives to advance the wellbeing of boys including hands-on interactive instructional methods, more recess-type breaks in the day for kids to be kids, talking to boys about how they interact with friends, and developing listening and relationship building skills.

    A call to action

    I’ve given you the insights of experts on the crisis facing boys today. They are extensive and while I haven’t explored the extension of these conditions into adult males (a subject for a future column), they are equally troubling and present a completing argument to act immediately to stop the growth of these problems among boys.

    While our educational systems carry a big burden to change the culture of education that has fostered this crisis, we as parents, grandparents and male stakeholders can play a role in this equation as role models providing a positive influence and as advocates that recognize the challenges boys face and push for change.

    To bring this discussion back to the personal perspective from which it started, think about the boys in your life. Find a way, whether through sports or other activities to create a bond and see how they’re doing. Don’t assume all is OK because they say so.

    No, I’m not suggesting that you act like a drill sergeant to probe and push for a download of the child’s life. Just try to get to know them a little better and see where it takes you. It might just be the best thing you did for them — and yourself.


    Louis Bezich, senior vice president and chief administrative officer at Cooper University Health Care, is author of “Crack The Code: 10 Proven Secrets that Motivate Healthy Behavior and Inspire Fulfillment in Men Over 50.” Read more from Louis on his website.

    Louis Bezich

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  • Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on Netflix, and every movie new to streaming this week

    Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on Netflix, and every movie new to streaming this week

    Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

    This week, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, the new buddy cop movie starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, comes to VOD this week along with the Hindi action thriller Kill. There’s plenty of other exciting releases to choose from that are new to streaming this week too, like Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on Netflix, the Michael Keaton-directed crime thriller Knox Goes Away on Max, the sci-fi drama The Beast on Criterion Channel, and more.

    Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!


    New on Netflix

    Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Photo: Sony Pictures

    Genre: Supernatural comedy
    Run time: 1h 56m
    Director: Gil Kenan
    Cast: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard

    The Ghostbusters have returned with an all-new movie, and this time Bill Murray is here! Three years after the events of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the Spengler family must join forces with the veteran Ghostbusters to stop a wrathful demonic entity from freezing all of New York City. Oh, and Slimer is here too, because of course.

    From our review:

    The Ghostbusters franchise doesn’t really seem to be aimed at anyone anymore. It isn’t funny. It isn’t scary. It’s mostly abandoned its new younger characters, and its older actors barely seem to care. Frozen Empire’s unintentional answer to the question seems to be that Ghostbusters is now corporate nostalgia-farming given cinematic form. Sure, it’s missing all the charm and goofiness that earned the original Ghostbusters so many fans — but if you stick around long enough, they filmmakers will show off the proton packs again, and there’s always a new person to slime. It’s a franchise reduced to nothing more than a parade of hollow, familiar images, lightly repackaged in hopes that we’ll buy another ticket and try to revisit the emotions we felt when we encountered this world for the first time.

    New on Hulu

    Femme

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    A man with prominent neck tattoos pressed against a wall by another person in Femme.

    Image: Anton/Utopia

    Genre: Thriller
    Run time: 1h 39m
    Directors: Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping
    Cast: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, George MacKay, Aaron Heffernan

    After being viciously attacked by an unknown man and their group of friends, a drag queen named Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) confronts their assaulter — a closeted young man named Preston (George MacKay) in a gay sauna. Striking up an affair, Jules plots his revenge against Preston, who is oblivious to Jules’ true identity and intentions.

    Sleeping Dogs

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    A man wearing a hairnet holding a puzzle piece while staring at a glass table of puzzle pieces.

    Image: Nickel City Productions/The Avenue

    Genre: Crime thriller
    Run time: 1h 50m
    Director: Adam Cooper
    Cast: Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan, Marton Csokas

    After being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, retired homicide detective Roy Freeman (Russell Crowe) is motivated to reopen an investigation into the murder of a college professor when a mysterious new witness comes forward with a compelling piece of evidence. As he works to track down the true culprit, he’ll have to fight to convince those around him to trust his intuition and theories.

    New on Max

    Knox Goes Away

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Max

    A man wearing sunglasses stands in a darkened doorway.

    Image: FilmNation Entertainment/Saban Films

    Genre: Crime thriller
    Run time: 1h 54m
    Director: Michael Keaton
    Cast: Michael Keaton, Al Pacino, James Marsden

    Sixteen years ago, Michael Keaton made his directorial debut with The Merry Gentleman, about a hitman going through some hard times. Now he’s back with his second directed feature, also about a hitman going through some hard times. This time, the hitman is John Knox, a contract killer separated from his family who takes on one last job after he’s diagnosed with dementia.

    New on Criterion Channel

    The Beast

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Criterion Channel on July 28

    Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) and Louis (George MacKay), a pale man and woman in pale blue-grey sweaters, stand opposite each other and look into each others’ eyes in an abstract neon-blue space in a scene from The Beast

    Image: Kinology

    Genre: Sci-fi romance
    Run time: 2h 26m
    Director: Bertrand Bonello
    Cast: Léa Seydoux, George MacKay, Guslagie Malanda

    Imagine Cloud Atlas meets The Age of Innocence meets Mulholland Drive. That’s about the simplest way of describing The Beast, Bertrand Bonello’s sci-fi romance drama. Léa Seydoux (Spectre) stars as Gabrielle, a woman living in the near-future who undergoes a process to “purify” her DNA of strong emotions by reliving her past lives. Her procedure becomes more complicated after crossing paths with Louis (George MacKay), a man whom — in a past life — she may or may not have loved.

    From our review:

    The Beast’s three timelines play with seemingly unmixable genres: a classic period romance, a gripping horror-thriller, and dystopian sci-fi. That places them at a logistical disconnect, but Bonello binds them aesthetically and emotionally. Through his lengthy, thought-provoking close-ups of Gabrielle and Louis in each section, he creates a sense of longing and isolation across time, binding together human experiences of the past, present, and future, and putting them into sharp and chilling context.

    New on Shudder

    Humane

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

    A group of concerned-looking men and women seated at the far end of a kitchen island.

    Image: IFC Films

    Genre: Horror
    Run time: 1h 33m
    Director: Caitlin Cronenberg
    Cast: Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire, Peter Gallagher

    The feature debut from Caitlin Cronenberg is a horror thriller worthy of the family name. Set during a worldwide ecological collapse, Humane follows estranged siblings who learn that their father and mother have chosen to take part in a nationwide euthanasia program as a form of public service. When things go awry, the family will have to choose one of their own to offer up as a substitute participant. Naturally, things get personal.

    New to rent

    Bad Boys: Ride or Die

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Will Smith sits in the passenger seat as Martin Lawrence drives as the two laugh in a scene from Bad Boys: Ride or Die.

    Photo: Frank Masi/Columbia Pictures

    Genre: Buddy cop action
    Run time: 1h 55m
    Directors: Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah
    Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens

    The Bad Boys are back for another spin around the block! Bad Boys for Life directors Adil & Bilall return for the latest entry in the franchise, this time following partners and best friends Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) as they work to clear the name of their late boss Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) when he’s posthumously implicated in a criminal conspiracy.

    From our review:

    El Arbi and Fallah’s direction is the brightest aspect of Ride or Die. The pair has leveled up since Bad Boys for Life, showing themselves as eager students of Bayhem, happy to deploy camera work as exciting as the shootouts it captures. Frenetic drone shots zoom through gunfire, cameras pivot over the barrel of a gun, and nothing ever, ever stays still. It’s a bit overwhelming: Restrained compared to Bay in their previous effort, they overreach a bit here. Their action shines brightest when it features someone capable of believably kicking ass on screen, like Jacob Scipio, returning as Mike Lowrey’s long-lost son from Bad Boys for Life.

    Kill

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    In the movie Kill, Lakshya has a knife held to his throat by an unseen person wearing camo

    Image: Lionsgate

    Genre: Action thriller
    Run time: 1h 45m
    Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
    Cast: Lakshya, Raghav Juyal, Ashish Vidyarthi

    In this thriller, an army commando leads a mission to rescue his girlfriend from an arranged marriage — and then ends up also rescuing a train from a gang of bandits. Kill premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was the first runner-up for the People’s Choice Award: Midnight Madness.

    Here’s what Polygon’s curation editor Pete Volk had to say about it:

    Kill makes the most of the close-quarters setting and the many different weapons on display — knives, limbs, fire extinguishers, and the architecture/layout of the train itself all play into the combat. It’s a real treat for action fans, especially when things take a turn 45 minutes in and the violence amps up significantly. Kill doesn’t go from 0 to 60; it starts at 60 and goes to 200. The movie’s action design is basically broken into two halves, allowing the team (and Lakshya as a lead) to show a variety of approaches to the fight scenes. I won’t say too much, to avoid spoilers, but the action design becomes much more lethal in response to the events of the story, which allows Kill to start with a more classic nonlethal martial arts approach to action before transitioning into something closer to what you might find in a horror movie.

    Toussaint Egan

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  • ‘The Boys’ Season 4, Episode 6 and ‘The Acolyte’ Episode 6 Instant Reactions

    ‘The Boys’ Season 4, Episode 6 and ‘The Acolyte’ Episode 6 Instant Reactions

    It’s time to hop in the hot springs of an unknown planet with the Midnight Boys as they give you their instant reactions to the latest episode of The Boys (08:37). Later, they break down all the latest mystery and intrigue in the new episode of The Acolyte and discuss what is working for them in this latest Star Wars show (53:04).

    Hosts: Charles Holmes, Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman
    Producers: Aleya Zenieris and Jonathan Kermah
    Social: Jomi Adeniran
    Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts

    Charles Holmes

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  • ‘The Boys’ Season 4, Episode 5 and ‘The Acolyte’ Episode 5 Instant Reactions

    ‘The Boys’ Season 4, Episode 5 and ‘The Acolyte’ Episode 5 Instant Reactions

    The Midnight Boys kick things off with a discussion on the latest episode of The Boys, focusing on Hughie and his father and much more (08:15). Then the guys dive into the latest episode of The Acolyte and react to the reveal of the masked villain (52:40). Later, listen to Nerd News Minute as the Boys react to the latest pictures of James Gunn’s Superman suit (01:21:48).

    Hosts: Charles Holmes, Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman
    Producers: Aleya Zenieris and Jonathan Kermah
    Social: Jomi Adeniran
    Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts

    Charles Holmes

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  • Gail Simmons on the Finale of ‘Top Chef’! Plus, ‘Dunk and Egg’ News and ‘The Boys’ Season 4 Premiere.

    Gail Simmons on the Finale of ‘Top Chef’! Plus, ‘Dunk and Egg’ News and ‘The Boys’ Season 4 Premiere.

    Chris and Andy talk about the news that production has begun on another Game of Thrones spinoff series based on the Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas (1:00). Then, they talk about the first few episodes of The Boys Season 4 and the direction the show is heading in its final season (13:56). Finally, they are joined by Top Chef host Gail Simmons to discuss last night’s finale episode and some of the competition changes that were made this season (36:09).

    Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald
    Guest: Gail Simmons
    Producer: Kaya McMullen

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / RSS

    Chris Ryan

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  • The Lost Boys paired vampire camp with real teenage fears

    The Lost Boys paired vampire camp with real teenage fears

    The Lost Boys’ poster made the prospect of becoming an undead creature of the night pretty attractive: “Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.” But the movie’s story is full of teenage terrors: an older sibling in the grips of addiction, divorced parents, starting over in a strange new place, and contending with adults who won’t listen to your real, valid teenage problems.

    Released in 1987, The Lost Boys isn’t particularly terrifying as a horror film. With its gaudily dressed vampires and long-flowing mullets — plus its iconic, extremely sweaty saxophone man — it reads more camp than straight horror three decades later. And despite its R rating, it’s fairly tame. Its single sex scene is pretty chaste and the film’s gore is limited to gushes of blood from dying vampires.

    The Lost Boys succeeds as an enduring piece of vampire fiction because of its stars, with Kiefer Sutherland standing out as vampire gang leader David, and the strong bones of its story. In that story, recently divorced single mom Lucy (Dianne Wiest) moves to the fictional Southern California town of Santa Carla, “the murder capital of the world,” the film tells us, with her teenage sons, Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim). The displaced family moves in with Lucy’s dad, an eccentric taxidermist known only as Grandpa.

    Image: Warner Bros./Everett Collection

    As they settle into the town, which appears to consist primarily of a densely trafficked beach boardwalk, Lucy gets a job (and a potential boyfriend) at a video rental store, while Michael and Sam seek new friends — Michael’s comes in the form of a group of young vampires, while Sam bonds with comic book store geeks Edgar (Corey Feldman) and Alan Frog (Jamison Newlander). When Michael falls for Star (Jami Gertz), a seductive vampire in the making and apparent partner of David, peer pressure compels him to become a vampire himself.

    Opposite Michael’s path, Sam throws in with the Frog brothers, who warn the new kid in town that Santa Carla’s whole murder-capital-of-the-world problem stems from a nest of vampires. The Lost Boys doesn’t shy away from established vampire fiction with the Frog brothers; they use horror comic books as a field manual to identify and kill vampires. (Refreshingly, unlike far too many modern zombie genre stories, which refuse to use the word “zombie” at all, vampire fiction isn’t afraid of calling its monsters what they are.)

    While Michael’s story of becoming bewitched by both Star and David is at the center of the film’s story, The Lost Boys is also Sam’s story of watching his brother slip into a metaphorical addiction during the “just say no” era of the Reagan administration’s war on drugs. It’s also a story set during an era of skyrocketing divorce rates; The Lost Boys plays masterfully on the fear of watching your parents split and the inevitable replacement father figure coming into the picture.

    Brooke McCarter, Kiefer Sutherland, Billy Wirth, Alex Winter in The Lost Boys

    Photo: Warner Bros./Everett Collection

    Sutherland and Patric hold The Lost Boys together as rivals ostensibly competing for Star. As David, Sutherland channels Billy Idol as a spiky trickster, making Michael hallucinate that he’s eating worms and maggots — when, in reality, he’s eating Chinese takeout — before David presents him with a taste of real vampire’s blood. As Michael, Patric plays it both cool and disaffected, but also earnest in his love for Star and terrified of his new vampire powers. There are strong set-pieces involving the two male leads, including a moment where David and his vampire gang convince Michael to hang out underneath a moving train, compelling Michael to let go and embrace his ability to fly. It’s the movie’s strongest allusion to its inspiration, J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.

    Despite strong performances and great character twists, The Lost Boys rushes toward its ending in clumsy and unsatisfying ways. Dianne Wiest’s Lucy has too little to do outside of reacting to the men in the film, and Grandpa seems to have much more going on than the film reveals. Its 98-minute run time needed a little more time to breathe.

    But The Lost Boys, much like ’80s kid-heroism movies E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Goonies, is about its young people. As an oft-campy time capsule of ’80s-era hopes and fears, it will never get old.

    The Lost Boys is currently streaming on Max.

    Michael McWhertor

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  • 8-year-old saves brother after dog alerts him to fire in Upstate home

    8-year-old saves brother after dog alerts him to fire in Upstate home

    An 8-year-old saved his 6-year-old brother from a fire in their home in Seneca earlier this month, according to his grandmother, Sharmen Pressley. Pressley said the family’s dog alerted 8-year-old Zeke Stewart that there was a fire. “I later found out that the dog, who was in a crate, Bruno, woke Zeke the oldest little boy up to get him out. Zeke woke up, he said the room was already on fire and there was smoke and he got up and went out the back door and got some air, gulped some air and then went back inside the house to wake his little brother up that was in the bed with him,” Pressley said.Pressley said both boys and their stepdad made it out of the house safely. Zeke was treated for burns on his ears and his brother had minor burns, according to Pressley.”I’m very proud of Zeke because he was very brave and didn’t think of himself,” Pressley said. “When we asked him what were you thinking about, he was thinking about waking his brother up and getting his brother and dad out of the house.”The family’s dog Bruno suffered burns on his head, but is OK. “Bruno we consider to be our hero too,” Pressley said. “They said with his burns, his hair won’t grow back so he’ll live with the scars but they’ll be a reminder to us how diligent he was to get the boys awake. He actually went back in the house and that’s why he got the burns.”Pressley said the family lost nearly everything in the fire. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family.

    An 8-year-old saved his 6-year-old brother from a fire in their home in Seneca earlier this month, according to his grandmother, Sharmen Pressley.

    Pressley said the family’s dog alerted 8-year-old Zeke Stewart that there was a fire.

    “I later found out that the dog, who was in a crate, Bruno, woke Zeke the oldest little boy up to get him out. Zeke woke up, he said the room was already on fire and there was smoke and he got up and went out the back door and got some air, gulped some air and then went back inside the house to wake his little brother up that was in the bed with him,” Pressley said.

    Pressley said both boys and their stepdad made it out of the house safely. Zeke was treated for burns on his ears and his brother had minor burns, according to Pressley.

    “I’m very proud of Zeke because he was very brave and didn’t think of himself,” Pressley said. “When we asked him what were you thinking about, he was thinking about waking his brother up and getting his brother and dad out of the house.”

    The family’s dog Bruno suffered burns on his head, but is OK.

    “Bruno we consider to be our hero too,” Pressley said. “They said with his burns, his hair won’t grow back so he’ll live with the scars but they’ll be a reminder to us how diligent he was to get the boys awake. He actually went back in the house and that’s why he got the burns.”

    Pressley said the family lost nearly everything in the fire. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family.

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