‘Good One’ Review: India Donaldson’s Feature Debut is a Profound and Big-Hearted Triumph | Chicago Critics Film Festival

It’s a risky prospect to give a movie a title that could also be used to critically assess it. Some titles are basically asking to be mocked by mean, soulless critics like yours truly. Such is the case with Good One, the feature debut of writer-director India Donaldson. But never fear, in this case, the moniker is apt. Donaldson’s small-scale but big-hearted film is an affirmational look at the perils and instability of adulthood, as observed by someone on the verge of it herself.

That central figure is Sam, played by Lily Collias, who’s about to set off for college. The film follows a weekend hiking trip with her, her father Chris (James Le Gros), and their family friend Matt (Danny McCarthy). Over the opening credits, we see the trio leaving their New York City life and setting off for the woods. From there, they simply hike, camp, and repeat. On paper, it seems like the kind of average weekend away that wouldn’t necessitate a big screen portrayal. But everyone had at least one break from their routine during their formative years that lodged itself in their memory forever. Good One captures that sort of “it mattered to me” experience, where conversations, settings, and other specifics are more defined than usual in the part of the consciousness reserved for recall.

This energy of a fleeting-but-unforgettable event is brought beautifully to life by Donaldson’s overarching vision. Long, dialogue-heavy scenes are balanced with non-speaking montages of the characters roaming through nature, taking in their surroundings and letting the organic majesty of untouched land do the talking for them. Donaldson shoots the forest in a way that doesn’t draw attention to the machinations of the cinematography, smartly letting every gently flowing river and heartstopping expanse speak for itself. One particularly gorgeous location involves an area covered in smooth boulders with a small stream flowing through, ornamented by neatly stacked piles of rocks left behind by unknown visitors. The camera lingers on these rocks, spotlighting the butterflies that are strangely drawn to them. The characters never call attention to these curiosities, but it’s clear that they’re being stored in their minds as an important detail that will help mentally lock in this weekend forever. That’s the funny thing about memory – when looking back on indelible moments, it’s not just the big, once-in-a-lifetime parts that can be recounted. Smaller, seemingly unimportant aspects are just as sharp, which this film clearly understands.

Le Gros and McCarthy are experienced working actors with dozens of credits to their names, whereas Collias has only been in one other film – Palm Trees and Power Lines. All three of the main actors give exceptional performances, as they interact, converse, fight, and joke in such a believable way that they seem equal in terms of professional experience. And even better, they’re fully believable as people who’ve known each other for years, or in the case of Sam, for her entire life. Collias has such a command over her face, her microexpressions in the film’s many close-ups tell so much more about her inner life than any of her words. It’s the kind of performance that will make you want to remember her name to watch for her future film work; this is clearly the start of an incredible career for Collias. Le Gros plays a somewhat frustrated and occasionally grumpy, but loving, dad. He has a hilariously short fuse, often directed at Matt, but Le Gros finds moments of exuberance and charm. Most notably, he gets to play drunk in a pivotal scene, and his barriers-down, “I promise I’m good” portrayal is an accurate look at what tightly wound people can be like when they imbibe. And McCarthy is just fantastic, delivering a performance that appears, on the surface, to be mostly a comic foil to the tender father-daughter story at the film’s center. But he’s a man with deep pain, which he lays out during the drunk scene. Tears well up in his eyes, but they never fall, just as so many men have a habit of approaching an essential emotional point but never quite breaking through. 

As Matt’s characterization indicates, Donaldson’s screenplay is disinterested in following typical cinematic patterns and standards. To just read the film’s description, it would be easy to assume that Good One tells the story of a father and daughter bickering during a comically disastrous trip. But instead, it’s shown that Sam and Chris already appreciate each other without hesitation. They may not always understand each other, and Chris certainly has trouble seeing his daughter as anything but the young child she used to be, but this is, blessedly, a story about Sam’s ascendancy into adulthood rather than a rocky road to eventually tolerating her father.

Donaldson assembles some incredible dialogue for her characters, vacillating between hysterical observations and quips (one cutaway to the men trying to remember the Spanish terms for the days of week is a riot) and stunningly heartfelt instances of revelation. Cliches are dodged like unsteady forest ground, leading to a film that’s pleasantly surprising in a way that doesn’t draw attention to itself. The film isn’t boastfully proud of the expected moments it avoids, it simply revels in its quiet honesty.

Good One is a hilarious trek, where the audience is given the privilege of being let in on the well-established dynamics of a closely bonded trio. India Donaldson is clearly a filmmaker to watch, and I can’t wait for her next sure-to-be profoundly honest story.

Grade: A-

This review is from the 2024 Chicago Critics Film Festival. Good One will be released theatrically by Metrograph Pictures.