Good One is a 2024 American drama, the directorial debut of India Donaldson, who also wrote and produced the film. It had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and was released in the UK yesterday. Since I was already at the Pictureville Cinema, Bradford for The Marching Band, it seemed churlish not to do the double-bill.

The film follows a three-person hiking expedition to the Catskills, a vast mountainous forest park in Southeastern New York State. Lifelong fifty-something friends Chris (James Le Gros) and Matt (Danny McCarthy) had planned to take their respective teenage kids, Sam (Lily Colias) and Dylan on a hiking and camping weekend. However Dylan, resentful of his parent’s divorce, refuses to go. So 17-year-old Sam, her father and his best friend set out into the wild.

Both Chris and Matt have failed marriages, and Matt has a failed acting career to go with it. They come across a bit like the Odd Couple: Chris the tidy, organised one who has camping down to a fine art and Matt the slob, who forgot his sleeping bag but not his booze. They are both resentful of where they now find themselves, and are both rather self-absorbed, particularly after a few drinks. They over-share with Sam, who is just setting out on her own life and does not need to hear all their self-pitying, middle-aged angst. She is the ‘good one’ of the title: a well-balanced teen excited about her future. When they ask for her opinions on their situations, they get an objective view, not the sympathy they were perhaps seeking. But there are some things that, once said, can never be unsaid.  

This is a beautifully observed piece of film making. It is all about trusting the camera to pick up what is going on in the heads of the characters, so that they do not need to vocalise their responses to what they see and hear. And Sam’s face effortlessly depicts every thought and every moment of discomfort, humour, and shock – Lily Colias is a quite astonishing young actress!

Consequently, there are no easy conclusions and no neat tidying away of loose ends. It is case of what you see is what you get. But it is clear that Sam walks out of the forest a different girl to the one who walked in three days earlier.

Good One is an excellent small-scale drama: almost a chamber drama, but set in a vast National Park, and I strongly recommend it.