Written, directed, and produced by India Donaldson in her directorial debut, Good One stars Lily Collias as 17 year old Sam who is about to go away to college. She agrees to go on a hiking trip in the Catskill mountains with her gloomy divorced Dad Chris (James Le Gros) and his also divorced friend Matt (Danny McCarthy). As you might expect, things do not go to plan.
This is the sort of film that, with its gentle pace, slowly creeps up on you. The characters are particularly well drawn. Sam, for example, is not the typical moody teenager that we see on screen. She is practical and seems to enjoy time with her Dad, even showing an interest in trekking across China with him, and feels empathy for Matt, who is going through a tough time. But, the father-daughter relationship is all surface. It takes him a couple of days to ask Sam about college and when she tries to tell him about a traumatic incident, he brushes it under the carpet.
Donaldson is the daughter of Roger and has inherited some of his directorial duties. She also has a keen ear for dialogue, particularly involving long standing male friends. McCarthy is great at quietly articulating his unhappiness and Le Gros at suppressing his. But it is Collias who excels, deftly portraying Sam’s mixture of warmth, steeliness and fragility.
Good One can be rented on all the usual services.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10