Teenage-sensible Sam is a good teenager. In fact, she’s not just good she’s great. She’s smart and thoughtful and grounded. But it’s hard to be so good all the time. People take advantage of her compliance and expect too much from her because they forget that she is actually still a child herself. They don’t realize that sometimes she needs to be taken care of instead of doing the taking care.
India Donaldson, in her debut feature “Good One,” explores this often-overlooked aspect of adolescence as we transition into adulthood with Good One. The movie follows a father-daughter camping trip over a long weekend in upstate New York where Sam’s dad finally starts seeing his daughter as an independent young adult rather than just his little girl who has always been there for him when he needed someone most.
It’s small-scale storytelling but on big themes; director India Donaldson doesn’t try to pretend like this movie is anything more than what it is: an intimate story about two people coming to terms with their changing relationship over one weekend spent together out in nature.
Good One premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it competed in the U.S Dramatic category against other indie films such as Coda directed by Sian Heder, which won the Grand Jury Prize. It has received critical acclaim for its honesty and openness surrounding sensitive topics like family dynamics during teenage years.
The film invites viewers to look closer at seemingly insignificant moments because it believes those are often the ones that matter most especially when you’re trying to figure out who you are becoming while also holding onto who you have always been deep-down inside yourself somewhere along this journey called growing up; sometimes these two versions clash head-on causing internal conflict which can only be resolved once they find common ground between them.
So while “Good One” may seem like just another coming of age drama set against a picturesque backdrop filled with trees and mountains, it’s actually much more than that. It is a movie about growth, understanding, acceptance and love all told through the eyes of two people who are learning how to see each other for the very first time.
But, like I said before: this isn’t your average feel-good flick where everyone learns their lesson and walks away better off than they were at the beginning. No, Good One is something else entirely because life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows; sometimes it’s hard and confusing especially when you’re young which is why “Good One” takes us on such an emotional rollercoaster ride from start to finish but don’t worry you’ll be glad you took this journey because once again India Donaldson has created magic on screen by capturing those fleeting moments in life where everything seems possible if only we dare seize them before they slip away forever.
This doesn’t bother Sam; it’s just how she is. But something about the way these two gruff older guys talk to this soft-spoken young woman has started to seem unfair they often treat her as a sounding board for their middle aged gripes and self-pity, commending her perspicacity in a manner that feels simultaneously condescending and a little conditional. Jovially, Sam can rib their clumsy masculinity up to a point: Blank looks or shushes greet anything too forthright.
As the three navigate rocks and rivers, their banter meanders happily enough that you don’t notice right away how one way it is; not until a full day has passed does anyone ask Sam anything of consequence about herself. And when one night around the campfire a joking exchange between Sam and Matt skews uncomfortably across the line, it becomes plain that she’s one against two and once again required to be the younger-but-bigger person in the face of her elders’ shortcomings. Donaldson’s keen-eared script artfully avoids movie-style confrontations (which are so much easier) as Chris instead tests his friend with passive-aggressive moves and politely loaded observations.
First glimpsed here two years ago in a supporting role in “Palm Trees and Power Lines,” Collias impresses within a quieter register that doesn’t allow for great extremes of expression. Perhaps calm is simply Sam’s nature, but Collias’ tightly wound performance suggests it’s also armoredness; Wilson Cameron trains his camera on her long enough in soft, sun dappled closeup that we eventually see muscles clenched beneath serenity. Le Gros is superb at mirroring that composure while also getting to play an angry/irritated alpha-male surge or two facing outward; McCarthy adds slacker-loud loucheness that ultimately strains more than it slackens.
The clash between those three opposing energies builds to a climax that some viewers might find anticlimactic an open-ended stalemate more in line with the structure of a short film, perhaps but that also seems right for the people and their continuing lives. It takes longer than a weekend for a “good one” to assert its neediness, though it brings Sam so close; not just adulthood, but a new look at her childhood, an understanding louder than any shouting match.
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