Sundance 2024 Review: Good One – “a quiet, nuanced film”

Lily Collias appears in Good One by India Donaldson, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

That writer-director India Donaldson wanted to re-visit herself as a teenage girl for her feature debut, Good One, is commendable.  You’re at an awkward stage where you are no longer a child, when you’re grasping at adulthood, but you’re not quite there.  It’s this transitionary phase where people’s reactions to you also change.  Yet sometimes, as is the case for Sam (Lily Collias) you might just be the wisest person in the room. Or, as it happens, forest.

It’s easy to see from the way Sam packs for her camping trip with her dad, Chris (Jame Le Gros) that this isn’t her first rodeo.  She explains what everything is to her girlfriend Jessie (Sumaya Bouhbal) and sets her alarm for the morning.  She doesn’t complain that now she’s going to have to pack tampons and change them in the woods, nor that she’s missing out on a weekend of fun with her friends, who send her a plethora of texts about their get-together.  This trip, which also includes her dad’s college buddy, Matt (Danny McCarthy) and his son, Dylan, has already been planned.  So, she’s going.

But, Matt and his son get into an argument, and when Dylan decides in anger not to attend it leaves Sam on her own for the three-day hike with the two men.  She doesn’t really comment other than offering to try and convince him.  She just sits quietly and grins in the back seat as the men playfully bicker the way old friends do.  “I wish we were four, but three will do,” says Matt, toasting their small group at dinner the night before.  He’s happy on the outside, but really Matt, still recovering from his divorce, is broken, a fact that becomes more apparent as their trek continues.  As the three hike further into the woods, the dynamics shift, leaving Sam to see her father, Matt and even herself in new ways.

Inspired by camping trips she took with her own father, Donaldson crafts a quiet, nuanced film that requires your full attention, but it more than earns it.  Not just because of the stunning scenery captured by cinematographer Wilson Cameron, but also the beautiful score from Celia Hollander which perfectly complements every tonal shift of the film.  In its beginning Good One almost has a bit of a retro feel.  It wasn’t until I saw the first smartphone that I even realized it was set in the present day.  But, you can feel that every decision here, as Donaldson remembers her personal experiences, is made with intent and attention to detail.

Perhaps the best decision was in casting Lily Collias, whose first feature appearance was in 2022’s Sundance film Palm Trees and Power Lines.  She grounds the film, it being entirely from Sam’s perspective, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else in this part.  The role of Sam is one of subtleties.  There are no impassioned speeches here, no wide range of emotions outwardly portrayed.  Instead, everything with Sam runs deep, under the surface, and Collias is confident and assured in her performance, where the slightest change in her eye or movement of her mouth tells the audience everything they need to know.  She’s an exceptional talent.

At one point in the film, Matt praises Chris for having a good kid, where the title originates.  What Donaldson does so well is ask us to think about what this means.  It is because Sam is quiet and introspective, never talking out, that she is good?  No doubt she is an empathetic and caring person, we see that in her actions, but is the adult evaluation of her goodness just simply that she hasn’t rebelled?  She behaves, she is cooperative, so she is good.

I hesitate to call this a coming-of-age film because Sam already has such a good head on her shoulders, and she is still a teen.  She seems to have it more together than her middle-aged counterparts.  But, she certainly has to experience some of the discomfort and disappointment that comes with adulthood.  Sam learns some important lessons in this film about speaking up for herself, and taking action, even if it’s small, when the people you trust dismiss or don’t protect you.  There’s no doubt in my mind at the end of this film that Sam is still going to be ‘good,’ but that the definition of this might change.  She’s going to be strong as well.

Good One premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, January 21, 2024.  For more information head to festival.sundance.org