Indie Spirit Revue: "Good One"
Friday, January 24, 2025 at 2:00PM by Nick Taylor
Good One is maybe my favorite film of the seven "Firsts" nominated at the Indie Spirits. India Donaldson's story of high school senior Sam (Lily Collias) going on an annual weekend camping trip in the Catskills with her dad, Chris (James LeGros), and his friend Matt (Danny McCarthy) could not be simpler to summarize. Yet, the wrinkles and intrigue she's put into this premise - both men are in their 50's, Chris is on his second marriage with a new baby at home while Matt is currently working through divorce proceedings - are thoughtfully integrated. We briefly meet friends and family of the soon-to-be-departed, and off we go…
I'm pleasantly surprised to see Good One recognized in First Screenplay instead of First Feature, in part because I credited so much of the film's impact to Donaldson's directorial vision. The fact that it's so easy to summarize, and largely perched on the POV of a character who doesn't talk much, made me take the script's assuredness with characterization and incident for granted. We learn a lot about these three people, surely a tribute to Donaldson's unfussy and observational style, but also symptomatic of good screenwriting. These dynamics weren't borne into thin air or improv'd from whole cloth on set.
Everything we learn about these three people helps contextualize their behavior during the camping trip while still leaving room for mystery and ambiguity around how they treat each other in the world. How much of Chris and Matt's fraternal bonding and mockery reflects their usual dynamics of knowledge and competence? Is Sam always taking care of shelter and food production? Do they treat all women this way? I've seen some criticism about how the final third is handled, but I think it's a great risk to go even quieter, to make us really consider what Sam is feeling through her actions.
In the best way possible, Good One feels like a short story intricately and carefully transposed to cinematic size and language. The economy of Donaldson's storytelling is simply breathtaking. Graham Mason's editing might be the single element of any of these seven films I'm most curious to revisit, or at least the part I suspect I've underrated most. The cutting, in tandem with Wilson Cameron's austere cinematography, helps crystallize the overall vibes of this camping trip even as all three figures feed and disrupt the energy in their own ways. To that end, LeGros and McCarthy play their chest-puffing masculinities ideally, finding a lot of color to their good-naturing joking and outright condescension while keeping everything in a register that never draws attention to their craft. They're like if the A Real Pain guys sucked in an all-too-recognizably human register, rather than a cinematically entertaining one.
Lily Collias, making her film debut, is just as rich in her body language and asides, while mostly having to inhabit the sort of subdued affect and telepathic communication with the audience you'd see from Kelly Reichardt and Debra Granik's actors. She simultaneously conveys a watchful intelligence and unfakeable greenness, meaning we believe she has the facilities to accommodate a lot of Chris and Matt's actions but not the experience to withstand some sad surprises. Collias suggests so much interiority without breaking the austere nature of Donaldson's images. I'd have loved to reward her in the Breakthrough Performer category. Still, I look forward to seeing her in attendance at the awards ceremony and hope to see her in another major role soon.
Good One is nominated for the Best First Screenplay Film Independent Spirit Award.
Reader Comments (1)
I agree on the strength of Good One. However, the film has risen higher in my opinion due to the fine writing and keen analysis of this post.