Behind a strong premise, great direction and unsettling silences, Good One perfectly captures a feeling with unsettling accuracy.
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I'm a big proponent of getting out in nature. Not only is getting fresh air and moving around a nice environment generally good for you physically, but it can also help you clear your mind and perhaps find some peace amongst the chaos of your life. At least in theory. Because depending on your company a walk in the woods can be as stressful as working a customer service job during the holiday season. I bring this up because today's movie Good One perfectly captures the feeling of quiet discomfort.
The Setup
The movie follows Sam, a 17-year-old girl who is going on a weekend backpacking trip with her dad and her dad's oldest friend. A trip that goes from an ideal bonding opportunity to awkward as Sam's father and his friend take shots at each other's life choices, and Sam is forced to wade her way through it.
Good One is a solid bit of indie filmmaking that uses its limited location and cast to hammer home its primary message.
We can start with the setup: a backpacking trip through a large nature reserve/park. One of the things about doing a backpacking trip or hike is how quiet it is or can be. The only noises you hear are nature or your footsteps which is why it can be so soothing. But it's also...isolating and also means any additional noise or conversation is impossible to ignore. So Sam being on this trip with her dad and this friend is very very awkward. Because if either one of them makes a dig at the other or at Sam...how the hell is Sam supposed to react?
Director India Donaldson also lets these awkward encounters breath and really makes the audience feels every uncomfortable moment as if it's happening in real time.
Which brings us to the movie's primary message.
There's a lot of things this movie could have been about. If it was just Sam and her dad, we have the makings of a road trip/family drama where father and daughter come to an understanding or become closer. But the inclusion Sam's dad's friend Matt adds a new/different wrinkle to the proceedings.
Now it's a guys trip...that also has a young woman in attendance. Or rather we've got one almost woman and two grown children.
Let's Talk "Emotional Labor"
One of the basic concepts that folks can/should learn is emotional labor. It's the idea that when it comes to day to day management of a household, (both in mental space and in action) typically falls to one person (and more often than not women in heterosexual couples). This can include basic things such as clean up and also...emotional regulation of everyone in the household be they a pet...or a spouse.
Almost as soon as this trio meets up, Sam is doing the lion's share of the emotional labor. She's the one that's cooking, cleaning up or setting up the campsites, and even looking out for Matt who came to a weekend of camping with almost no supplies.
Which means...as pleasant as stretches of this are...this is not fully a vacation or time away for Sam. It's work. And each time we see Sam checking her phone where her friends or girlfriend are having a fun time, while Sam is listening to another clash of egos between these two jerks, we feel just as trapped and frustrated as she is.
And that could be manageable...if these two weren't also dumb dickheads.
Small Scale Patriarchy
We were already in small scale patriarchy with Sam doing so much of the, let's call it housecleaning involved in a trip like this. Aka when Sam cooks ramen for the pair, they act as if it is magic.
But oddly enough it's at its most obvious when Sam's dad Chris and Matt talk about their past relationships and lives.
The key thing about Chris and Matt is that they are two sides of the same coin. Matt is gross. He's an over-the-hill actor who is wildly insecure about his life with a completely immature outlook towards his past and current relationships. He's clearly a guy that should've been in therapy for years, but never went. So while he can brush off Chris' digs about his life choices, Sam boiling it down in the obvious places he needs to do work blows his mind.
But Chris isn't better. The issue with Chris is that he both views Matt as beneath him (aka I'm in such a better place mentally etc. than him) while also not trying to push his friend to change, support him or truly challenge him.
It's almost like he likes having Matt around because it makes him feel better about himself. Like sure my life is a hot mess, but it's not as messy as Matt's is. So when Matt doesn't have any additional clothes that are suited for hiking, Chris chastises him, but that's about it.
What neither one is doing is thinking about how their interactions and actions affect Sam.
Instead they praise her for being "mature" when she gives them a baseline psych evaluation that they easily could have given each other at any point in time instead of "busting balls."
This is where the movie's title comes from. Because Matt calls Sam a "good one" because she cooks and is able to provide an easy read of their patterns of behavior. When really they should be pissed at each other for never offering the same thing.
It also means that when lines get crossed, Chris isn't going to do anything. He's going to capitulate or avoid rocking the boat because that's easier for him. Even if the current paradigm is worse for his daughter. And that'll piss her off enough to rebel, in whatever means she has.
Chris and Matt are bad guys. Because not only are they immature and inconsiderate. But they will behave that way for days and then turn around and wonder why a 17-year-old girl, who's been made to feel unsafe, would lash out.
Chris and Matt are bad guys. Because not only are they immature and inconsiderate. But they will behave that way for days and then turn around and wonder why a 17-year-old girl, who's been made to feel unsafe, would lash out.
The Verdict: Quietly Powerful
Behind a strong premise, great direction and unsettling silences, Good One perfectly captures a feeling with unsettling accuracy. 8/10
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