‘Good One’ movie review: a tender debut feature from India Donaldson
India Donaldson’s debut feature, Good One, is a tender piece of cinema that operates quietly and subtly, empathetically offering up a pivotal moment in a teenage girl’s life. What’s interesting, however, is the film’s lack of major, explosive conflict. Instead, Donaldson creates a simmering atmosphere that sways between enjoyment and tension before revealing the movie’s core message through one small scene.
Expertly crafted, the film depicts many silent moments set to a gorgeous score by Celia Hollander, which is calming and nostalgic, allowing the facial expressions of the characters or the expanses of trees to do all of the talking. Most of the film is set in the forest where 17-year-old Sam, her father, Chris, and his friend, Matt, are camping for a few days, although when we first meet the teenager, she is at home in New York, somewhat hesitant as she packs for the trip.
We get a taste of Sam’s life at home, which seems rather comfortable, but she is soon whisked away from the comforts of a proper bed and phone reception, where her relationship with her father gradually crumbles. Away from the distractions of technology and private spaces, issues bubble to the surface and reveal the deep levels of insecurity felt by both the middle-aged men.
Donaldson crafts a fantastic portrait of the experience of being a young girl, just as much as she sharply explores masculinity. The men are prone to poking fun at each other in a way that feels somewhat charged with malice, and there’s an innate sense of competitiveness to much of their conversation, like when Chris suggests that he is going to hike across China.
At one point in the movie, the group meet another set of campers – all of whom are men in their mid-to-late 20s – and the older men’s insecurities become even more clear, with Donaldson’s use of dialogue blending astute observations on age and gender with a witty edge. When the older men try to brag to the guys, they’re quickly caught out – these younger adventurers have hiked everywhere already.
Meanwhile, Chris and Matt reckon with the fact that they are both divorced men who feel like failures, and this mindset inevitably affects Sam, who must put up with the pair’s tense behaviour. We often see her finding discreet moments to change her tampon behind a tree, cooking for the men, cleaning, and organising the camp. By taking on such stereotypically womanly roles, Sam finds herself inducted into the adult world where she must fend for herself.
Sam tragically comes to learn that her father isn’t as reliable as she’d hoped, and through many studied gazes and quiet moments of wandering, we feel the weight of her crushing realisation. The performance given by Lily Collias is fantastically nuanced, and she is sure to find herself some more leading roles in the near future if Good One is anything to go by.
While there are times when it feels like Donaldson focuses too much on scenes of the group walking across rocks and through trees, the moments when the characters are talking to each other are incredibly engaging. With a lack of major crescendos, some might find the movie a little slow, but Donaldson perfectly captures that feeling of being told, as a woman, that you’ve taken a comment made by a man too seriously or that you’re being overdramatic.
The director understands how Sam feels and allows her process her emotions, and this makes for an intimate and special film about the harsh brushes with reality that often come to disappoint us when we’re young.
