Good One

I think maybe son "Dylan" (a fleeting appearance from Julian Grady) might have had the right idea when he decides to opt out of his dad's camping trip with his best friend and his daughter. Seems that "Matt" (Danny McCarthy) is having father-son issues amidst a divorce after he strayed with someone quite a bit younger. His travelling companions are lifelong buddy (James Le Gros) and teenage "Sammy" (Lily Collias) who have a more typical relationship. She has known "Matt" for years and for a while their trip, trekking through the beautiful Catskill mountains, seems to pass off amiably enough. They even meet some fellow travellers for some who has been where grandstanding; the tents seems to go up without any slapstick and there's a little teasing about the nature of her relationship with "Jessie". "Matt" however, begins to feel a bit melancholy though as he gradually beings to appreciate that his family is disintegrating and after a revealing conversation with "Sammy" and an even more revealing and wholly inadequate one she has with her father afterwards, it becomes pretty clear that she is not without her own problems and her father has quite a bit of growing up of his own to do. It's a very slowly paced drama this, with most of the dialogue delivered as naturally occurring conversation. That works to an extent as sentences are left unfinished and inferences are made using facial expressions, but what is missing here is any sense of development of these people. We are left to make too many assumptions which rather lets the thing down as the story heads to it's crunch moment. That rather comes out of the blue and seems contrived to make the very point the auteur wants to make despite it not really fitting the profile or behaviour of the characters we had hitherto been walking through the wilderness with. I suppose, without giving the game away, I just don't agree with the fundamental message that the latter stages of the film seem to be trying to convey here and so was ultimately a bit disappointed that what started off as an light-hearted, quite wittily scripted, observation of family became something a little subliminally sinister for the sake of it. It's a gorgeous film to watch and Collias delivers engagingly, too, but films like this risk fuelling a growing misconception of an opportunistic or even predatory male stereotype that most men simply won't accept and isn't actually true.

Written and directed by India Donaldson, the movie follows 17-year-old Sam (Lily Collias) going on an excursion in the Catskills along with her father Chris (James Le Gros) and his friend Matt (Danny McCarthy). A trip to the heart of the woods that naturally exposes each character's anxieties as they tread different paths in their lives. Wiser than her age, Sam is presented as observant whose mood goes from taciturn to enthusiastically playful to earnestly mature. Donaldson's attention to detail traces behavioral nuances that subtly illustrate shadings of perception that never depart from the natural and realistic. Dialogues weaving seamlessly without requiring inauthentic drama allows us to feel not only invested in what is happening, but also part of it.

According to Donaldson, the idea was born from her own experiences growing up and going camping with her father and his friends. Her debut length feature is, at its core, a character study that is interested in an immersive contemplative experience through the eyes of someone whose sensitivity might not be shared, not because of differences in what constitutes moral values, but because of a displacement in presumptions. By reason of the object of perception not being equally perceived, different readings of it are born. A decisive event in the movie articulates this difference in interpellation and renders what came before, our being with these characters and making our own assumptions after the time spent, something needing to be recontextualized.

It would be tempting to see in Good One anything but a reproduction of ideological discourses where the lines between good and evil are clearly drawn, and by doing so, something that voids reality from its complexities. Nonetheless, its non-judgmental approach is more interested in exposition than it is in lecturing. This is a story grounded in believable events and as such, said line could not be further from being drawn no matter how questionable some remarks might be interpreted.

India Donaldson's first feature film, Good One, is a quiet, slow-paced story that trusts viewers to pay attention and recognize important moments, even when it may seem that nothing much is happening. Good One marks the arrival of two notable talents: Donaldson and Lily Colias. Eschewing the typical storytelling signposts and noisy confrontations, the film unspools slowly, with cinematographer Wilson Cameron's keen eye making nature a vital part of the tale.

The dynamic of a planned three-day hike is markedly altered when Matt's son bails at the last minute, leaving 17-year-old Sam to function as a third wheel with her father Chris (a spot-on James Le Gros) and Matt (Danny McCarthy), two middle-aged men in need of more respite than a hike can provide, even with Sam there to reveal wisdom and poise beyond her years.

Not since Jennifer Lawrence's star turn in Debra Granik's Winter's Bone has a young actor so vividly presented a fresh talent to keep an eye on. We will be seeing a lot more of Colias. Le Gros brings a quiet complexity to Chris, bringing to mind his stellar work in Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women. Like Reichardt, Donaldson's film is not flashy, subtly calling attention to the faces of the cast and glory of nature. While Celia Hollander's quality score at times underscores the mood, it is occasionally intrusive when natural sounds and silence would have better served the moment.

Once the small, big thing happens, Matt does not speak again, nor is he seen in the same frame as Sam. Only very briefly is he on screen with Chris. The shots and framing are no accident. The implications for the trio's relationships going forward are suggested with delicacy. The visual storytelling makes for a sumptuous treat on a small scale. For a film in which "very little happens," the events of the hike change all three.

A remarkable new actress has been born. Progressively preposterous, as it became that a 17-year old as special as Sam would go on a hiking trip with her father and his best friend, her acting will keep you watching until the end. Throughout the film, I kept thinking her face and expressions could belong to a precocious young French actress (think Léa Seydoux). Reading her biography, I found out her mother is French. I am certain we will see, and hear, more of Lilly Collias. Other than Collias, the two male leads, James LeGros and Danny Mc Carthy are very convincing in their roles. Both the camerawork and the writing are exceptional.

The anticipated twist never materialized. The film attempts to blend the tranquility of nature with a forced tension, relying on the setup of a group of men and a young woman isolated in the woods. This approach feels contrived and detracts from what could have been a great movie about a father and daughter learning to adjust with adulthood.

The film presents a viewpoint suggesting that men may have unfavorable traits, while also proposing that women are remarkable with a level of intelligence that may be considered exceptional. We only are introduced to 2 women and about 10 men throughout the film. All 10 coming across as arrogant and capable of anything and the two women as being introverted and rational. This alone sets a stage for the message men=bad and women=good. In my view, the last 20 minutes of the film unequivocally prove the opposite.

The acting was superb across the board, and the mixing, editing, and overall production were done well.