Good One
A simple camping trip evolves into a life-changing experience in this sensitively told coming-of-age debut.
Seventeen-year-old Sam is used to being a ‘good’ child: obedient, clever, unaffected by being largely overlooked. When she’s roped along on a trip to the upstate New York wilderness with two divorcees – her father Chris and his old friend Matt – her role turns to mediator as their flawed personalities, microaggressions and competing egos come to the surface. Just as she learns uncomfortable truths about them, so too does she discover where, and how, she’ll draw the line.
Told from Sam’s perspective, writer/director India Donaldson’s feature debut eloquently sums up the realities of being a teenager teetering on the edge of adulthood. Breakout star Lily Collias delivers a stellar performance, capturing through witty dialogue, expressive glances and body language the thrill and sometimes frustrating in-betweenness that mark this stage of life. All wrapped in Wilson Cameron’s striking shots of the Catskills (captured in just 12 days) and Celia Hollander’s gentle score, Good One evokes the films of Joanna Hogg and Kelly Reichardt in its quietly revelatory intimacy.
“Harrowing and extraordinary … A movie that unfolds with the grace and sensitivity of a masterful short story.” – IndieWire
Tickets
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