Sometimes in good stories there is an extraordinary twist that makes the audience shake their heads at the writer’s prowess. This is not the first film to have the ‘trust’ element but from what I have gathered, there is such an ordinary yet powerful ‘trust’ breach in this film that it is unexpected. Often, when showing things of high sensitivity, directors tend to dumb it down but DT does not care for moderation. She achieves the same through the dramatic music and deafening reactions, which dilute the shock value of the moment. Instead of theatrical effects, the moment is depicted through a quiet setting where audiences only see half of the main actress’ face. Can such a subdued and simple approach work? Definitely, because sometimes less is more especially in regards to tension.
As I reclined on my couch in January watching the online portion of the Sundance Film Festival, I was thinking that it’s very probable for the audiences at home especially the critics who have a habit of spending half the length of their festival screeners posting on social media to forfeit the moment of watching it altogether. But when I went to see “Good One” for the second time during the ongoing Independent Film Festival Boston, crowds at Brattle Theatre were so involved that a lady sitting behind me actually exclaimed, ‘Oh no!’ when it happened because she was upset about something that took place on screen. There’s also this widespread belief that this huge slab of a screen is only meant for spectacular shots and that intense dramas like Donaldson’s can be easily enjoyed at home while missing out on very little. But I would like to maintain that images like this one are even more enhanced when their relevance and quality is experienced through the sole influence of a single visual medium: the film.
With such a narrative, ‘Good One’ earns such a trust. Though meek in scale, it does not lack in ambition or impact as the racing weekend collapses into a simple premise. Sam, 17 years old, is ordered to spend the weekend with her surly father Chris (James Le Gros) and his old, drinking best friend Matt (Danny McCarthy) in Catskills. Sam was supposed to go on this trip with Dylan who is Matt’s son and a childhood friend of Sam, but he decided to take a backseat after another fight with his father. The family is torn apart by Matt’s recent cheating, a reality that Sam is all too familiar with herself owing to her instances of her father being unfaithful. Now she has to act as both a referee and babysitter for two middle-aged children; attending old boys dropping a few calls to her girlfriend Sumaya Bouhbal and asking how did she get on that trip.
There exists a conceptualization of the film that can potentially be viewed as awful, a synopsizing that I have nearly always struggled with since Sundance, in which Gen Z as an exponent revisits two hegemonic masculine archetypes in an elevated landscape. The film titled “Good One” is more complicated and deeply human than that and conveniently, it is also the case that the 40-year-old writer Donaldson had a child of her own, which makes the fact that she partly wrote the screenplay quite illuminating.
The use of various sentimental tools within such a film makes it possible to direct a precision of focus and scale of empathy towards the intertwining of these three characters as we become acquainted with them rather soon. With his loud mouth and attitude, Matt has always catered to Sam’s sense of humor as a “fun uncle,” pushing all the right buttons of her seemingly austere father. Beneath the surface of his humor now lies a void that is explained by the ruins of his marriage and plummeted career. As a leader of his family, McCarthy introduces him as the one who has grasped his funny bone one step too late. He is dressed appallingly, putting on blue jeans and lugging a backpack stuffed with cheese puffs.
It is apparent that Chris and Sam’s father lost things in common after college, however, Chris still uses Matt to make himself feel good about his messed up life. That friend who always has a mess created around them; most people have them. (If you don’t, that probably makes you the messy friend. I tend to be one as well.) There is no apology as Chris Le Gros, le Gros, or ‘90s indie film regular is unconvincingly playing a person who treats every interaction as a competitive contest and everyone else is not competing. Perhaps, the most demasculating part of Chris Le Gros’s character throughout the film is that he allows himself to be bested by bet middling herd traveled sculpturing wannabe’s.
Donaldson points the camera at the face of Collies for most of these sessions. This is the first time the actress is performing the role, nonetheless, she is one of great listeners amongst the movie’s protagonists. We are watching her watch them, a young girl trying to find her position within their structure and within the whole world of adults, unfortunately, a world where she will encounter many vulgar, oppressive men. Sam has a hilarious though perhaps a touch too script-like speech concerning how her father magically got a child in his fifties, although she is mostly an introspective, respond more than actively perform sort of woman. Interestingly and appealingly so.
Donaldson is the daughter of a Hollywood director Roger Donaldson who is a veteran of creating adrenaline-raising thrillers like “Smash Palace” and “No Way Out” and the movie “Cocktail which is more of a Tom Cruise’s hustle than an actual Elvis movie. His films can be described best as testosterone filled and while such images are quite different from “Good One” they nevertheless create its background and context. Probably the clearest of them is Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy, featuring nothing more than a camping trip involving two guys, with little to no energy left toward their once strong friendship. The younger Donaldson shares the passion for the outdoors with Reichardt, and possesses the same obsession with silence in between the dialogues. More recently, in her interviews, she has mentioned that after watching Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum, she was given certain authority, or rather permission, where the daughter learns how to recognize the father figure and pursue her individual vision.
“Good One,”–the title says it all, no need to aim for originality, it’s hardly in contention with Christy Hall’s Daddio for the worst title of the year–is a warm compassionate film about the unfulfilled dreams so many have about growing up. ‘Can’t we have a pleasant day out for once?’ Chris asks his daughter, using his considerable defensive skill and letting her down once again. Throughout the trip, however, Sam learns that being an adult is not all that it is cracked up to be when one is at the adult’s table. Especially when one has an idiot father and Matt at the table.
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