Good One ★★★★

Released: Friday 16th May 2025

Director: India Donaldson

Starring: Lily Collias, James Le Gros, Danny McCarthy

In Good One, Sam (Lily Collias) is just your normal kid in their late teens about to head off to college. Before that, she is spending a weekend away with her dad, Chris (James Le Gros); his best friend, Matt (Danny McCarthy); and Matt’s son, Dylan (Julian Grady). It isn’t going to be the best weekend ever, but she’s going to enjoy the ride and company. She will miss her girlfriend, Jessie (Sumaya Bouhbal), especially when the phone signal drops, but a peaceful hike in the Catskill Mountains still has a strong appeal to it.

The first thing that goes wrong is Dylan’s last-minute refusal to come due to resentment at his parents’ recent divorce, leaving Sam stuck with two mildly grumpy sixty-year-olds who are both, almost certainly, going through or are close to a middle-aged crisis. Good One’s setup creates an instantly interesting dynamic between the trio. Sam enjoys good relationships with both her worrisome father and the humourous Matt, but even as the youngest of the three, it falls to her, as a woman, to carry much of the emotional and mental burden of the group. India Donaldson, directing and writing her feature film debut, handles these complex power shifts incredibly well and with a striking deftness.

At times, Good One is so subtle, so pared back, it is hard to pick up every little tidbit of emotion, but with DOP Wilson Cameron, Donaldson manages to eke out some extremely powerful moments. The camera lingers at opportune moments, whether it is on Sam’s false smile or a roll of her eyes. In many ways, Good One is a coming-of-age film, but it’s one that subverts expectations and explores the wider gender and generational gaps that exist in American society.

At the centre is Collias in one of her first screen roles. It’s a tremendous performance that echoes Good One’s subtlety whilst still shining with a magnificent aura and power. Her body language and facial expressions give as much insight into her world, her life, her feelings as her words do. They share great chemistry with Le Gros and McCarthy, who are both impressive as stunted men, who importantly are both realistic in their flaws and strengths. Their egos are constantly thrashed against one another in a twisted, never-ending game.

There is a pivotal turning point in Good One’s plot at around the hour mark that is best left unwritten, but is so eloquently and realistically depicted by Donaldson that it deserves a mention. It feels like a big shift in the film’s tone, but in reality, there have been telltale signs, and it is the aftermath that is as bracing as the event itself. Here, Collias’ performance steps up a notch too. There is some fleeting disappointment when Good One ends soon after; it seems to have done a lot of legwork to get to this dramatic moment, only to end some twenty minutes later.

But this disappointment disappears quickly when you realise why Donaldson does it like this, why it needs to be done like this. The ending lacks concrete resolution to the issue, a true emotional catharsis, or a confrontational moment—much like how real life plays out, especially in this dynamic of society. Donaldson’s expert handling of such a powerful situation is evidence of this. Throughout Good One, the moments are largely subtle, speaking to wider issues, and it is why Donaldson’s debut is so unforgettable and deceptively powerful.