Movie info via Sundance:
On a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam contends with the competing egos of her father and his oldest friend.
India Donaldson’s intimate feature debut deploys a deceptively simple narrative imbued with poetry and humor to wrestle with weighty truths about teenage girlhood. Capturing the pristine serenity of the natural beauty of the film’s setting via Wilson Cameron’s delicate cinematography, Good One artfully crystallizes how the men’s competitive friction overtakes Sam’s experience of even the most tranquil landscape.
As her father’s paternalistic focus on his wayward friend leaves little space for Sam, Lily Collias crisply conveys her character’s discomfort and changing estimation of their relationship through subtle shifts in expression and body language, allowing the audience to consider alongside her the cost of her obedience. As Chris and Matt, James Le Gros and Danny McCarthy inject the film with tension and uneasy humor, providing context and atmosphere in support of Donaldson’s intricate exploration of the lessons Sam learns.—HZ
Review:
In Good One, India Donaldson’s interesting character study of a young college bound girl Sam (Lily Collins) hiking the Catskills Mountains with two dads- her father-Chris (James Le Gros) and his long time friend now growing through a divorce, Matt (Danny McCarthy). Matt’s son was to be the fourth person but backed out when they got into a heated argument.
The shift in the car seating arrangements (Sam gets the back, Chris and Matt the front) is the first indication of a change in the usual power dynamics. Later on, stacked cairns along a river bank would stand for the delicate, fraught nature of the three— which threatens to topple but never really does.
Donaldson doesn’t bother with a lot of exposition. The trip was planned. It exists. Things change. They’ll make the best of it. Donaldson will take care of the regrets, joy, character complications as they come.
In the dynamics Sam is the wise, mature one. Matt and Chris are uncomfortable with it to a certain extent, probably because they are mourning the end of their formal parental obligations to their children and are unsure how the new dynamics will play out. Matt is weepy and moody, impulsive and quick to say things unfiltered, tittering on becoming a bitter drunk. Chris is controlling and cranky when things don’t follow the prescribed line. He’s also understanding and blindly forgiving.
Donaldson’s attention to character details make Sam’s eventual assertion of her independence a poignant, believable moment. Having two stubborn dads, thoroughly stuck in their ways, yet who ask for her opinion and then disregard or dismiss it, eventually will lead to a rebellion moment. It comes when Matt says, in a drunken blurb, the one thing a dad should never say alone to the daughter of another dad.
There are no true villains here, just men caught in stupid moments of regret with a child. The evil is that every child must come to grips with the human failings of their parents, knock them down a peg when they become less than ideal, and then live within that reconciled vision of humanity.
Good One gets a 3.5/5 or a B+.
It’s streaming as part of Sundance 2024 . The virtual part of the festival runs from January 25-28.
Credits:
- DIRECTOR(S)INDIA DONALDSON
- SCREENWRITERINDIA DONALDSON
- PRODUCERDIANA IRVINEGRAHAM MASONWILSON CAMERONINDIA DONALDSON
- EXECUTIVE PRODUCERSARAH WINSHALL
- CINEMATOGRAPHERWILSON CAMERON
- PRODUCTION DESIGNERBECCA BROOKS MORRIN
- COSTUME DESIGNERNELL SIMON
- EDITORGRAHAM MASON
- ORIGINAL MUSICCELIA HOLLANDER
- MUSIC SUPERVISORTAYLOR ROWLEY
- CASTING DIRECTORTAYLOR WILLIAMS
- PRINCIPAL CASTLILY COLLIASJAMES LE GROSDANNY MCCARTHY
- YEAR2023
- CATEGORYFEATURE
- COUNTRYUNITED STATES
- LANGUAGEENGLISH
- RUN TIME90 MIN
- COMPANYSMUDGE FILMS, INTERNATIONAL PIGEON PRODUCTION, BAIRD STREET PICTURES & TINYGIANT
Leave a Reply