In 2013, legendary cinematographer Gordon Willis (“The Godfather”) was interviewed by Craft Truck about his filmmaking process. In the hour-long discussion, Willis said something that has stuck with me: “People don’t get the elegance of simplicity. … Don’t get simple mixed up with simplistic.” In other words, less is more, and less is not vacant. “Good One,” the feature directorial debut of India Donaldson, embodies that quote.
The plot of “Good One” is simple: College-bound Sam (Lily Collias, “Palm Trees and Power Lines”) tags along on a camping trip with her pragmatic dad Chris (James Le Gros, “Safe”) and his chatty buddy Matt (Danny McCarthy, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”). The three go through the motions of a typical camping trip, staring aimlessly at trees and talking about their favorite colors to disrupt the white noise of silence. Nothing of great plot significance happens in the first act, leaving us subject to benign, ephemeral tangents between middle-aged, divorced men. Every time Chris and Matt talk, we expect to hear something relatively important, which doesn’t occur. At one point, the awkward trio crosses paths with some college campers and nothing crazy happens then either. No drama, no crass comments and no plot development. In the act’s most significant conversation, Chris proposes that Sam should hike across China with him, to which she timidly agrees — there isn’t a direct follow-up to that proposal anywhere else in the film.
All this meandering is a wonderful and simple diversion tactic, one in which our impatience for drama disguises the fact that Donaldson has been slowly putting us into Sam’s shoes. Sam is our young audience surrogate, a mostly quiet observer, anxious both to have fun and to get back to her digital devices — especially in the presence of rambly old men. The film gives us her perspective directly and formally. We are more often than not privy to what she does when she is alone, whether that’s changing her tampons or texting her friends about how much she misses them (if there is any cell signal). Throughout the film, cinematographer Wilson Cameron (feature debut) embeds Sam’s perspective in the film’s visual language. As Sam is a short 17-year-old girl, we experience “Good One” at her eye level, always looking up at taller people, admiring nature a few inches below the average person. When the trio converse with those college campers, we follow Sam’s darting eyes, as both she and the audience are eager for different company and excitement.
It’s vital that Donaldson eases us into Sam’s perspective, as “Good One” isn’t really a story about a girl, her dad and his friend — it’s not even about nature. That’s all a red herring. The film’s core is a brutally casual scene at the one-hour mark. In it, Sam is emotionally betrayed by Matt, who says something inappropriate. Donaldson neither uses a close-up to emphasize what Matt said nor music to underscore it. Matt just says it and the scene ends. Later on, Sam is even betrayed by her own dad, and the film treats that moment with even less gravity — Donaldson plays it in a dispassionate wide shot. Her patient deference to Sam’s perspective, as the only woman in the entire film, puts the focus on the actual message: The insidious and unexpected ways misogyny rears its head. This scene with Matt is so innocuous yet effectively discomforting that it forces a reassessment of every prior “casual” scene. Were Chris and Matt bantering or were they ignoring Sam? Was Matt actually curious about Sam’s favorite color or was he just condescending to a soon-to-be adult woman?
Admittedly, the last leg of “Good One” leans too hard into metaphor and theatrics to truly stick that landing. Those probing, contextual questions get answered, but Donaldson opts for a rather dramatic last few scenes, which disrupts the film’s grounded and realistic tone in the hour prior. However, the trio of actors still sell the film to the end. Collias, in her sophomore effort, delivers a rousing introverted performance, one in which she almost exclusively acts with facial expressions. Veteran actor Le Gros shines as Sam’s dad, finally being given a substantial part. The relatively unknown quantity of McCarthy is charmingly creepy, adding layers to the talkative “buddy” archetype.
What makes “Good One” such an assured and promising debut for Donaldson and her crew is that the film is simple, but not simplistic. “Good One” is composed of standard shots used in expected but effective ways. The bread and butter of cinematic storytelling and techniques are all here, albeit in a subversive and thought-provoking package. There’s nothing fancy or innovative here but the film neither lacks richness nor depth. The elegant simplicity of “Good One” makes the experience all the more touching and devastating.
Daily Arts Writer Ben Luu can be reached at benllv@umich.edu.
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