Picture: Eddy Chen/Lionsgate
Each few years, Aziz Ansari learns a couple of new sociological phenomenon and funnels it into his work. Within the mid 2010s, his fascination with trendy relationship traits knowledgeable massive chunks of his stand-up material, his e book Trendy Romance: An Investigation, and season considered one of Grasp of None. His curiosity in ageing fed into the closing joke of his 2017 particular Dwell at Madison Sq. Backyard, and would have been the inspiration for his 2022 directorial debut movie, Being Mortal, if the movie had not been scrapped following harassment complaints in opposition to star Invoice Murray on set. Following that fiasco, Ansari started work on directing a brand new function impressed by yet one more sociological muse. Good Fortune, which premiered on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant on September 6, is all in regards to the gig financial system.
Ansari performs Arj, a struggling documentary editor in L.A. who makes cash by working part-time at a ironmongery store and a Taskrabbit-style firm known as “Job Sergeant,” the place his duties can vary from ready in line for individuals who need viral cinnamon buns to organizing messy garages. It’s grueling and demeaning work which leaves Arj topic to the whims of unforgiving purchasers who stiff him on cost for issues which might be exterior of his management (the cinnamon buns run out earlier than his flip in line.)
One of many individuals who hires Arj off the app is Jeff, a wealthy and stereotypical tech bro, performed by Seth Rogen. Jeff has a big home within the hills, a storage filled with luxurious automobiles he doesn’t know methods to drive, and his personal sauna and chilly plunge which he makes use of ritualistically, regardless of confessing he has “no thought” if it provides any advantages. Arj spends a brief stint working as Jeff’s assistant, however he’s fired for an sincere mistake. This kicks off a collection of occasions that ends together with his automotive — which he’d been dwelling out of as a result of he can’t afford an condominium — getting towed.
That’s when Gabriel, performed by Keanu Reeves, decides to intervene. Gabriel is a guardian angel who works within the “texting and driving” division of divine intervention. (Requested at one level how his work goes, he deadpans that it’s not going nice: “Folks actually love doing it.”) He’s been keeping track of Arj since he learn a regarding textual content Arj wrote whereas driving about giving up on his life. Gabriel aspires for extra fulfilling work, and in opposition to the orders of his boss (a higher-ranking angel performed by Sandra Oh), takes it upon himself to attempt to save Arj’s misplaced soul by displaying him that his life has which means regardless of financial hardship. Gabriel swaps Arj and Jeff’s circumstances to indicate him that cash alone received’t clear up all his issues. The unsurprising twist: it immediately solves most of his issues, and Arj has no instant need to change again.
This places Jeff and Gabriel, who’s demoted to being a human being by his boss for going in opposition to her orders, in a tough spot. Whereas Arj is off dwelling the great life, the pair now should scrape collectively sufficient cash to outlive, and the film as soon as once more hammers house the injustices of the gig financial system. Jeff begins working as a driver on a meals supply app, and he quickly learns what it’s like to attend in line for exorbitant intervals of time, get one-star opinions from unreasonable clients, compete with robotic supply carts, and lose cash on his work due to the price of fuel. Like Arj, they shortly find yourself sleeping out of a automotive.
Repetition apart, Ansari finds laughs in these circumstances. He performs up the excesses of Arj’s new life; in a single scene, Arj eats at a sushi restaurant the place the fish is flown in day by day and his eating companion (Matt Rogers) brags in regards to the restaurant’s “very excessive carbon footprint.” He mines tragicomedy out of Jeff and Gabriel’s monetary circumstances — in a single scene, Gabriel encourages Jeff to “concentrate on some positives” about sleeping of their automotive. However the film is at its greatest when it’s centered much less on these well-trod concepts and extra on Gabriel adjusting to his new life as a human being. Reeves, far and away the film’s MVP, performs Gabriel with pitch-perfect golden retriever innocence, and he squeezes each little bit of comedy out of the scenes the place Gabriel eats a hamburger for the primary time, surfs the web for footage of child elephants, and unknowingly takes psychedelic mushrooms.
Ultimately, nevertheless, even Gabriel’s innocence is overwhelmed down by his lifetime of destitution. He will get a job as a dishwasher, copes with the stress of it by indulging in vices, and laments his fall from grace. “I was a celestial being, now I’m a sequence smoker,” he complains at one level. When Gabriel will get his first paycheck, he’s mortified to see the tax and social safety deductions. It’s not sufficient cash to dwell on, he realizes. He’s shocked to be taught that his co-worker, Felipe, works three jobs without delay to make ends meet. Maybe the purpose Ansari is making is that this ought to be stunning to individuals, relatively than an accepted a part of life in trendy America. That’s well-intentioned sufficient, however you don’t precisely have to be a scholar of the gig financial system for it to resonate.
