Good Fortune

November 7 – 12

Friday 1:30 & 7 pm
Saturday 7 pm
Sunday 1:30 & 7 pm
Monday 7 pm
Tuesday 7 pm
Wednesday 3:30
Thursday NO SHOW DUE TO COMMUNITY EVENT

Rated PG – 1hr 37min

Comedy / Action

Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut, the comedy Good Fortune would have been just fine as a lively two-hander with Ansari and Seth Rogen that acts as a funny, often insightful exploration of the modern gig economy. It’s Reeves, though, who literally comes down from heaven (actually, more often a rooftop) to be the supernatural presence the movie needs to be something special. Ansari examines the current state of the American Dream through the throwback lens of It’s a Wonderful Life by way of Trading Places.

Arj (Ansari) is a financially strapped LA guy who lives out of his car and works multiple jobs. Sometimes he’s at a hardware store, where he befriends the union-touting Elena (Keke Palmer), and other times he takes jobs as a hired hand for people through an app that’s like Uber, but for random tasks. After Arj cleans his storage closet, rich tech bro Jeff (Rogen) hires him as an assistant, but not even a week later he fires him after Arj takes Elena for a date using Jeff’s “company” credit card. After this latest failure, Arj is depressed and at his wit’s end. That’s when Gabriel (Reeves) appears. A mid-tier guardian angel who mainly keeps people from texting and driving, Gabriel wants to do more. He offers to show Arj the pitfalls of wealth by swapping lives with Jeff’s, but it causes more chaos than Gabriel expects.

Good Fortune is akin to the best of Ansari’s episodes from his Netflix series Master of None, in which he was able to nimbly toe the line between hilarity and gravity and explore deep themes in a humorous way to make them accessible. Financial inequality and the widening gap between the haves and have-nots are big issues for a broad comedy to tackle, but scenes like Arj waiting in line for hours to pick up a rich guy’s gourmet donut puts those things into an entertaining perspective.

Even though it’s fairly obvious where Good Fortune is headed, Ansari manages to surprise in how he gets there. Whether you dig its social satire elements or the nifty spin on the helper-angel movie, or you just want to see Reeves not shoot people in the head for a change, Ansari fortunately has crafted a mature comedy that gives audiences a chance to both laugh and think.