The setting of India Donaldson's debut feature will look familiar to Vermonters — Good One was shot in the rocky, wooded landscape of New York's Hudson Valley. Hailed as a feminist coming-of-age story and nominated for awards at this year's Cannes Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival, the indie drama is playing at Merrill's Roxy Cinemas in Burlington and the Savoy Theater in Montpelier as of press time.
College-bound Sam (Lily Collias) takes a weekend hike in the Catskills with her dad, Chris (James Le Gros), and his longtime best friend, Matt (Danny McCarthy). Matt's teenage son was supposed to join them, but a recent, acrimonious divorce has left father and son at odds.
Sam finds herself caught between the two older men, whose friendship is likewise strained. Matt, an actor whose lucrative run on a cop show has ended, is struggling in every way. He's forgotten his sleeping bag and gets regularly tipsy, eager to talk about his feelings more often than Chris can tolerate. Sam offers Matt a sympathetic ear, but his neediness makes her increasingly uncomfortable. Before the hike is over, their dynamic will come to a head — with consequences for Sam's strong bond with her dad.
The phrase "good one" is loaded. It's what many people bemoan not finding on their dating odysseys. It's a compliment, sure, but often a backhanded one, implying that "good ones" are rare in certain demographics.
When Matt calls Sam a "good one" — a good woman, a good daughter, a cooperative, non-"difficult" teen — the mixed emotions on Collias' face speak volumes. Sam is mortified, yet she can't deny that she's worked for the approval of her elders. While Matt wallows in his feelings like a moody kid, she trudges miles without complaint, finds subtle ways to mediate between him and her dad, whips up decent trail food, and finds hidden spots in which to change her tampons.
Some viewers may find that last detail TMI, but it matters. We've all seen acclaimed auteur films in which a lissome, carefree teenage girl breathes life and hope back into a man in the throes of midlife crisis. (Woody Allen was the most prolific purveyor of this archetype but far from the only one.) What we've rarely seen in those movies is the girl's perspective, including the parts of her experience that aren't so carefree — that might even be messy and humiliating.
Donaldson nails Sam's perspective without idealizing or demonizing any of her characters. The daughter of Roger Donaldson (Species, Dante's Peak), the writer-director unfolds her story with a naturalism and intimacy that recall Kelly Reichardt (Meek's Cutoff). The landscape is a character, and the hike feels as exhausting and exhilarating as a real hike. Artful composition and the three players' body language reflect their shifting feelings about their forced proximity.
Collias conveys the awkward reality of adolescence rather than adults' wistful fantasies about it. Divorce has made Sam old beyond her years, with some of the coping strategies of an adult woman. Yet her hunched shoulders and scowls betray her restlessness and ambivalence about catering to grown men's emotional needs. We see how she relaxes whenever she's alone with her phone, a lifeline to her girlfriend (Sumaya Bouhbal).
An indie heartthrob in his younger years (Living in Oblivion, Drugstore Cowboy), Le Gros has matured into a likably rough-around-the-edges presence. Chris is a "man's man," uneasy with Matt's expressiveness and vulnerability, who also genuinely adores his daughter. But his empathy falters when Sam asks him for help in navigating situations he's never experienced himself.
Matt is the movie's linchpin, because it would have been all too easy to portray him simplistically: as an irredeemable jerk or, on the flip side, as a harmless goof whose intentions are pure. A theater actor and frequent "regular guy" on TV, McCarthy avoids both those poles. He crafts a character whose faults are relatable, one whose emotional rawness invites empathy. Matt is earnestly grappling with a sea change in his life, and, like Sam, we may wish we could help him. But we can't miss how his selfishness sabotages his efforts to evolve.
A quiet film about the struggle to communicate, Good One is sure to generate provocative — and productive — conversations across gender and generational lines. "Parents and children are always trying to catch up with each other or slow down to meet each other in the same place," Donaldson told Letterboxd Journal. Meet the film where it is and resist the temptation to label its characters "good ones" (or bad ones), and you'll come away wiser.
MARGOT HARRISON
The Loneliest Planet (2011; AMC+, Kanopy, Philo, Roku Channel, YouTube Primetime, rentable): Not many acclaimed indie dramas specifically address how gender dynamics play out over long hikes. But here's another one, set in the Caucasus Mountains and directed by Julia Loktev.
Janet Planet (2023; rentable): If the low-key, naturalistic texture and sylvan setting of Good One appeal to you, try Annie Baker's intimate portrait of a mother-daughter relationship.
The Assistant (2019; Max, rentable): Kitty Green's #MeToo drama, set in the film industry and clearly inspired by the Harvey Weinstein case, explores how subtle incidents of harassment wear down a person's spirit, whether they're the victim or required by their job to be complicit. Like Good One, this is an observational film that rewards close attention.