Directed by: India Donaldson
Written by: India Donaldson
Run Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

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A lot of Good One feels like a breath of fresh air – the beauty of nature; the earnest, simplicity of the story; the likeable, underwritten characters; the composed, but never overwrought direction – then, in one moment, the air is suddenly sucked out.

It’s a moment that takes Good One from charming low-key indie to something much more thought-provoking and darker. The kind of thing that one can imagine inspiring a scene in a Dan Clowes comic, a neurotic dad in bed staring wide-eyed at the ceiling and later confessing, “I haven’t been sleeping much lately. I’ve been thinking about Good One again.”

Before the film comes to its decisive fulcrum, Good One is an enjoyable character study following Chris (James Le Gros), his daughter Sam (Lily Collias) and his oldest friend, Matt (Danny McCarthy) on a weekend hike in the Catskills. It’s a few hours north of their homes in New York, but like another world altogether such is the tranquility and isolation.

While the two men are in their 50s and both divorced (although Sam’s dad has subsequently remarried), Sam is just starting her life, preparing for college and happy in her relationship with Jessie. The reason for such an uneven grouping is Matt’s son Dylan, who usually joins them on these trips, isn’t getting along with his dad post-divorce and bailed out at the last minute.

This odd dynamic of two older men and Sam, just on the cusp of womanhood, gives Good One a unique feel. It’s not a grouping we’ve seen on screen often – in this kind of context at least – but it really works thanks to the distinctive personalities of the characters and exceptional casting. James Le Gros (Drugstore Cowboy, Point Break) and Danny McCarthy (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) provide a perfect, curmudgeonly kind of charm to the micromanaging Chris and brash Matt, respectively. The audience warms to them as Sam does, despite their flaws – perhaps even because of them.

Sam, for her part, strikes a nice balance between the two and, while she likes to lie back and observe, she is never shy in letting them know her opinion. She’s the perfect protagonist for India Donaldson’s economic, show-don’t-tell debut. It’s typical of the harmonious elements at play in the film from Wilson Cameron’s ‘autumnal’ cinematography to Celia Hollander’s gently emotive score; the setting isn’t the only reason the film feels like a breath of fresh air – it’s the connected, empathetic storytelling that is as nourishing as the natural landscape. Then the end kicks in.

When Sam’s relationship with Mike shifts, her one with her father follows suit like tectonic plates. It shakes Sam’s core and we feel it as an audience. Sam changes and the film changes around her – the two older men stay the same – and as an audience we are asked not where we sit, but where we stand. Cinema is made for moments like this; where the world around a character remains constant, but their view of it is forever changed. Good One delivers another one of these most cinematic of moments.

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Star Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

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