Multi-award-winning actor Stephen Graham has become a household name through shows such as Adolescence, Peaky Blinders, and A Thousand Blows. One of his lesser-known masterpieces is the disturbing film The Good Boy, which first aired in 2025 at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival.

The black comedy thriller, which has been retitled Heel in the US, follows 19-year-old criminal Tommy (played by MobLand star Anson Boon), who is kidnapped and forced into rehabilitation by a married couple.

Stephen Graham stars as Chris, with Andrea Riseborough as Kathryn, and an official trailer has now been unveiled, showing how Chris abducts Tommy after a night out. Tommy wakes up chained in Chris’s basement as the unhinged couple attempts to reform Tommy’s unruly behaviour.

The Good Boy currently holds an impressive 94 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with UK fans desperate to know how and when they can watch the film. There is good news and bad news, as the film is due to be released in a couple of months.

Signature Entertainment is releasing the film on March 20, but unfortunately, it will only be available in cinemas in the UK and Ireland, and will not be available on any streaming platforms.

Viewers keen to see Graham in his latest role will need to purchase a cinema ticket, as there is no streaming release date yet. In the thriller, they will witness how Tommy has no choice but to comply with Chris as he attempts to escape at any cost.

The screenplay was originally written in Polish and set in Warsaw, but was adapted into English and set in Yorkshire to appeal to a wider audience. Joe Lipsett of Movie Oubliette praised Graham for his performance, sharing on Rotten Tomatoes: “By subverting expected narrative developments, Khalid and Bartosik’s screenplay tackles something much more human and interesting than your average ‘locked in the basement’ text. Graham, Riseborough, and Boon are all excellent.”

Matt Rodgers of Flickering Myth added: “Good Boy is relentlessly bleak ‘fun’ and twisty-turny throughout, with Stephen Graham once again excelling in a role about adolescence of a different kind.” Ian Sandwell of Digital Spy shared: “Anchored by terrific performances from British acting royalty Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough, with a strong breakout turn from MobLand’s Anson Boon, Good Boy is unlike any thriller you’ve seen this year.”

Matthew Creith of The Wrap concluded: “Good Boy is doggone exceptional when it comes to the powerhouse acting abilities of Graham and Boon, both of whom take on their roles to showcase opposite ends of the rehabilitation spectrum.”

Graham spoke to Screendaily about how the film “accidentally” explores themes from his previous hit, Adolescence. He shared: “When I watched it the other day, I was like, ‘Wow, okay, am I making focal points about young men and society?’

“But it was purely accidental. Those themes are interesting. Especially from where Jan [Komasa, director] was coming from. He was saying he had interviewed a classical Chinese pianist for a documentary in Poland and one of the questions he asked was, ‘Given the oppression of China, do you feel you would rather stay [in Poland] and not go back?’

“And this artist said, ‘No, I like where I live. I like that sense of authority. If they hadn’t provided me with the ability to play the piano, this talent wouldn’t have been nurtured’. It’s kind of a flipside to Munchausen syndrome. You don’t realise that your oppressor is oppressing you.”

On what attracted him to the project, he said he was keen to explore more European cinema, having watched a lot of European films from an early age with his dad.

He explained: “I love the sensibility and the way they do these normal things, then twist them, which is something we [in the UK] don’t really do.”

The Good Boy airs in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on March 20

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