Movie Review: ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’
Gore Verbinski takes time travel into dark comedy territory
After seeing the new film Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, I realized something: Irreverent comedies that truly go for the gusto are few and far between. Too few, one might say. I’m not simply talking about comedies that push some boundaries so they can come across as “edgy,” like Bridesmaids or The Hangover.Not that those are bad movies, they’re very entertaining. I’m talking about films I can refer to as Kitchen Sink Movies. Films that toss all kinds of outrageous things into the plot and just ask you to accept the conceit being set before you, the viewer. You know…”Everything but the kitchen sink.”While this could be a straightforward comedy like Anchorman, more often other genres are tossed in for good measure. Big Trouble in Little China is a mystical-kung fu-ghost story-action-comedy. Buckaroo Banzai is a rock ‘n’ roll-alien invasion-science experiments-action-comedy.Sometimes, but rarely successfully, they can tackle a seemingly taboo serious topic and make it bleakly funny. Like taking irritation with the vapidness of the world to its violent extreme in God Bless America, or combining teen suicide with follow-the-leader mentality in Heathers.Then there’s those rare ones that do both, and do it well, such as Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.At 10:10pm, a Man from the Future (Sam Rockwell) bursts into a Los Angeles diner. He claims this is the 117th time he has come back in time, to this exact moment, in this exact diner so he can find, among the forty-seven patrons and staff, the perfect combination of people to help him on his quest.This quest is about saving the future from destroying itself. An AI program is about to be developed that will throw the world into being a dystopian hellscape, and the Man needs to stop it.This time out he chooses Mark and Janet (Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz), Susan (Juno Temple), Scott (Asim Chaudhry), Marie (Georgia Goodman), Bob (Daniel Barnett) and, reluctantly, a disturbed-looking young lady named Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson). Will this motley crew of strangers be able to save the world, or is this Man from the Future just some nutjob?Directed by Gore Verbinski from a script by Matthew Robinson, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a hilarious and surprisingly moving pitch black dark comedy-time travel-societal critique film.Contained within its incredibly goofy premise are commentaries on grief, overuse of social media, teacher fatigue, the ethics of cloning, consumerism, phone dependency and school shootings. So, yes, there are trigger warnings galore, but the film does an excellent, albeit utterly bizarre, job navigating each minefield.Everyone in the movie is excellently cast, but this is completely Rockwell’s show. He’s at his loony best here, spitting out one-liners like they’re sunflower seed shells. This is his performances as Guy Fleegman in Galaxy Quest and Zaphod Beeblebrox in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy rolled into one big kinetic ball.With Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, we have been treated to one of the funniest, yet bleak as all get out, comedies of the 21st century.
After seeing the new film Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, I realized something: Irreverent comedies that truly go for the gusto are few and far between. Too few, one might say. I’m not simply talking about comedies that push some boundaries so they can come across as “edgy,” like Bridesmaids or The Hangover.
Not that those are bad movies, they’re very entertaining. I’m talking about films I can refer to as Kitchen Sink Movies. Films that toss all kinds of outrageous things into the plot and just ask you to accept the conceit being set before you, the viewer. You know…”Everything but the kitchen sink.”
While this could be a straightforward comedy like Anchorman, more often other genres are tossed in for good measure. Big Trouble in Little China is a mystical-kung fu-ghost story-action-comedy. Buckaroo Banzai is a rock ‘n’ roll-alien invasion-science experiments-action-comedy.
Sometimes, but rarely successfully, they can tackle a seemingly taboo serious topic and make it bleakly funny. Like taking irritation with the vapidness of the world to its violent extreme in God Bless America, or combining teen suicide with follow-the-leader mentality in Heathers.
Then there’s those rare ones that do both, and do it well, such as Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.
At 10:10pm, a Man from the Future (Sam Rockwell) bursts into a Los Angeles diner. He claims this is the 117th time he has come back in time, to this exact moment, in this exact diner so he can find, among the forty-seven patrons and staff, the perfect combination of people to help him on his quest.
This quest is about saving the future from destroying itself. An AI program is about to be developed that will throw the world into being a dystopian hellscape, and the Man needs to stop it.
This time out he chooses Mark and Janet (Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz), Susan (Juno Temple), Scott (Asim Chaudhry), Marie (Georgia Goodman), Bob (Daniel Barnett) and, reluctantly, a disturbed-looking young lady named Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson). Will this motley crew of strangers be able to save the world, or is this Man from the Future just some nutjob?
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Directed by Gore Verbinski from a script by Matthew Robinson, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a hilarious and surprisingly moving pitch black dark comedy-time travel-societal critique film.
Contained within its incredibly goofy premise are commentaries on grief, overuse of social media, teacher fatigue, the ethics of cloning, consumerism, phone dependency and school shootings. So, yes, there are trigger warnings galore, but the film does an excellent, albeit utterly bizarre, job navigating each minefield.
Everyone in the movie is excellently cast, but this is completely Rockwell’s show. He’s at his loony best here, spitting out one-liners like they’re sunflower seed shells. This is his performances as Guy Fleegman in Galaxy Quest and Zaphod Beeblebrox in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy rolled into one big kinetic ball.
With Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, we have been treated to one of the funniest, yet bleak as all get out, comedies of the 21st century.