Saturday Evening Movie Post [moviegique]: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die

Shockingly, I think I've only seen one other movie this 21-day-stretch, the 1945 classic "Brief Encounter," which is semi-relevant. But rather than talk about that masterpiece, I thought I'd give you a review of a new movie that doesn't suck--an increasingly rare breed.
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I was talking to a friend (who's been on a David Lean kick) about this movie, and she sighed and said "I hate...today."

This isn't so much a reflection on the quality of Gore Verbinski's latest joint Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die so much as its character, and more the character of our times. She had watched Brief Encounter, which is intensely human, personal and moral, and it's a big, jarring jump to a black comedy about the death of humanity, school shootings, and the rise of "fake reality".

I like Verbinski. Early in his career, it seemed to me that he made a lot out of some thin material: Mousehunt is basically a cartoon about two guys versus a mouse, and is far more entertaining than it should be; The Ring I liked better than the Japanese original; and of course Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl—based on the smash hit amusement park ride?—was a remarkable achievement blending old Hollywood swashbuckler tropes with CGI technology.

It's probably his best film and very possibly his ruination, as the first two sequels dominated his output in the '00s with predictably deteriorating returns artistically (if not financially). He had a hit with his quirky CGI Rango—which grossed a little bit less than his flop, The Lone Ranger, showing how weird the movie biz can be sometimes.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die looks to be a flop, too, looking like it may not break $5M in its opening weekend.

Would you go on a quest with this man?

As I sat there enjoying this film, I also couldn't believe that it had gotten made, as it's a dark comedy—extremely dark—and has not-at-all subtle message the world would prefer to ignore: Devices and social media are robbing us of our humanity. We are being manipulated by various forces into this, and we are also culpable in our own ultimate destruction.

It's a fun movie.

It's also, I hesitate to say, a thought-provoking one, and on a lot of levels.

Let's talk about the fun, first. I'm not going to reveal much about the plot because the first two-thirds of the film is tight, and the way the script by Matthew Robinson (The Invention Of Lying, Bird Box) turns various elements from gag/commentary into genuine plot points is very enjoyable. The characters' backstory is told in flashbacks, and the first one seems so over-the-top and so social-commentary, until you get to the second flashback, which really gives grounding to the first one.

I don't know, guys, it's like someone actually cared about the writing instead of just "Well, it looks cool." (It does look cool, though.)

The movie opens with Sam Rockwell materializing at Norms , a Los Angeles institution, terrorizing the patrons by looking and sounding like a maniac. He's from the future and trying to gather a team to—well, not stop the AI being created a mile or so away by a 9-year-old boy, but to deliver safety protocols invented by top scientists in the future.

Experts agree: The Apocalypse can be more rewarding when shared with friends or last minute acquaintances.

The opening shot is reminiscent of Strangers on a Train, which I mention because I just saw that picture again last month. We start with a long tracking shot done entirely at waist level, and zoom through the diner in such a way as to see all the dishes being served—and that everyone is on their phone. (I went to an In 'n' Out last week, and was somewhat startled to see twenty people in about four parties all staring at their phones. In fairness, half of these were guys at the end of their lunch break waiting for someone to come back from the bathroom, but it was still startling.)

Anyway, Sam Rockwell goosesteps over the tables, smashing everyone's food and phones, delivering the insane exposition which sets up a two-plus hour chase (with expository flashbacks) as Rockwell (whose character has no name) describes the various ways in which culture goes to hell, ever so gradually over the decades until things just fall apart.

A lot of uncomfortable truths here, but that's relatively mild.

His team includes of a couple of teachers with romantic issues (Zazie Beets, Joker and Michael Pena, End Of Watch), a possibly crazy mom (Juno Temple, Killer Joe), a legally-distinct-non-Disney party princess (Haley Lu Richardson) with a death wish, as well as a woman who just wanted pie and a man who goes along but isn't convinced by Rockwell's story.

Also starring some extras from "Toy Story" and the "Bad Robot" logo.

Oh, I just realized, this has two of my favorite tropes: taking place all in one night and taking place in a limited area of Los Angeles (see Miracle Mile, which this movie reminds me of greatly, down to starting in an iconic Los Angeles coffee shop).

Anyway, the team has many adventures, and we see Rockwell's character's backstory, which shows us a grim future where the world is a wasteland because everyone's much much "happier" in a virtual reality than the real world.

This is the through-theme, the punchline and the big idea, and it's pitched directly: I will create a perfect world for humanity, says AI, which is much better than the so-called real one, with all its suffering and loss.

Well, look, Hollywood's pretty much all-in on this rather Satanic notion so, yeah, I'm surprised the movie got made at all. And the general public is just champing at the bit to live in a virtual cage, so, no, I'm not surprised it's a flop. It's also not particularly politically correct. The two main female leads are basket cases. The story brutally mocks school shootings and the monetization of grief.

Rockwell runs around muttering, "Mindfuck. It's all mindfucks."

And...yeah. At one point early on I saw "The Cake Is A Lie" scrawled on the wall. This is a line from the video game "Portal". There's also an (out of focus) poster of "Portal" on a kid's bedroom wall.

Unfortunately, I don't know "Portal" much, but the Boy explained to me a little bit about the plot of "Portal" and "Portal 2" and...look, I've already forgotten how they relate, if at all, to the movie.

It's a message movie. The message? "We're doomed. But that doesn't mean we can't have fun!"

I wrote a story in the '80s which was sort of like The Matrix, except not cool, and the main premise was not that humanity had been enslaved by robots, but that humanity had opted for virtual reality to the point that real reality was entirely maintained by (perfectly well-mannered and solicitous) robots. I thought about it a lot watching this and thinking, "Yes, this does seems to be the more likely path than robot overlords." (I have not completely ruled out robot overlords, however.)

I only bring this up because, in the end, it was not clear to either of us what was real and what was not. There are a number of clues dropped in a number of places suggesting a number of things. The fact that this was a well-made film made these issues interesting to discuss (and the Boy and I did, extensively) rather than annoying. It's a movie you can go see and debate endlessly.

The music by Geoff Zanelli is on point. During a very Carpenter-esque sequence in a school, I wondered for a moment if they'd brought John Carpenter in to score it. The cinematography by James Whitaker similarly pleased me with the attention to detail and use of actual interesting camerawork instead of just relying on bombast and camera-clichés. People cared, and it shows all the way through.

I said to the Boy, "Hey, a Hollywood movie we liked. Probably the first since Mission Impossible 8." He responded with, "Hollywood made this?"

So that's where we are. And while we enjoyed it and enjoyed discussing it afterwards, I can still relate to the whole concept of "I hate...today."

POV: You're in an ensemble picture. I mean, you WERE in an ensemble picture.

posted by Open Blogger at 07:30 PM

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