Watched at: BFI Southbank - Tuesday 03 June 2025 20:50 NFT4
It's a fine art finding a movie you want to see nowadays, but the trailer for Good One intrigued. The film follows teenage Sam on a weekend hiking with her dad, Chris, and his oldest friend, Matt – whose son pulls out after an argument.
The script feels like a collage of India Donaldson’s lived experiences, and wouldn’t be surprised if the whole thing isn’t true in its entirety. Donaldson must have enjoyed a sublime hike up a mountain or two.
The film begins with a heart-warming depiction of a close father-daughter relationship, abutting Sam's funny relationship with Matt, a classic centre-right dad’s-best-friend who comments that Sam “looks like a vegetarian”.
On the final night of their camp, the trio tell ghost stories and both men reveal they cheated on their wives, including Sam’s mother, and have or will, marry much younger women. Chris goes to bed early, leaving Sam alone with Matt.
It’s a little awkward, then Matt asks if Sam wants to sleep in his tent: “it’s not fair that your dad gets the extra body heat” (paraphrased). Gross out. After an uncomfortable morning, Sam tells her dad what happened. Chris replies: “just ignore him.”
This film shines in its depiction of simmering misogyny; cringey, disgusting and sadly mundane. A male friend I watched it with said he experienced a discomfort he had not yet had the misfortune of experiencing.
Moments of weakness:
The middle drags. As we build to the pivotal scene, we hang back on one two many shots of trees and slow teenage food-preparation. Boring is too strong a word (perhaps slow is better?) but the woman beside me was picking her fingernails.
The film is a well structured, well written essay, until the final beat. As punishment for their behaviour, Sam fills her dad and Matt’s backpacks with rocks, climbs the mountain alone, and locks them out of the car. For a moment, she almost drives off and leaves them stranded, but eventually unlocks the car door. Inside the car, Sam and her Dad share a look. Her dad places a rock on the dashboard. Sam almost laughs, almost forgiving him, all in good humour, we cut to black, and Donaldson has undermined her argument.
Sure, a good-natured teenager like Sam probably wouldn’t drive off without her dad (although she did walk off without him), but this final smile felt incongruous with the tone of the whole.
My last criticism is existential but the biggest problem with the film. I don’t believe for a moment that Sam should have to put up with her dad or his friend’s gross attitude, and yet their lives and their holiday was otherwise depicted as idyllic. The story is painfully white middle class.
You can imagine the production meetings back in the city: posh, white, female execs discussing how vital it is that this story gets told. It’s an interesting watch, but I’m not convinced we learned anything new.
Screenplay 9
Direction 7
Performances 9
Cinematography 8
Costumes 7
Design 7
Soundtrack 8
Originality 5