“Good One” is one of those subtle character drama films where you need to focus more on mood and nuance with some patience. On the surface, nothing particularly dramatic happens among its three main characters, but the movie slowly and sensitively lets us discern the relationship dynamics among them. Around the point where it eventually arrives at the ending along with them, we come to reflect more on what has actually happened during their journey, and we also wonder how much things will be changed for them. 

At the beginning, we are introduced to an adolescent girl named Sam (Lily Collias). Along with her father Chris (James Le Gros), she will go on a weekend-long camping trip in the Catskills, and they are supposed to be accompanied with Chris’ best friend Matt (Danny McCarthy) and his adolescent son, but there comes a setback when Chris and Sam come to pick up Matt and Matt’s son. Probably due to some bad feelings between him and his father, Matt’s son refuses to go along with them at the last minute, and Sam is not so pleased to find herself stuck alone between her father and his best friend.

After staying at a local hotel for one night, these three people embark on the camping trip in the next morning, and we are amused a bit as observing how inexperienced Matt is compared to Chris and Sam. While his attire is not so suitable for the camping trip, his backpack is filled with rather unnecessary stuffs which will surely be quite burdensome for him to say the least, and, above all, we cannot help but notice how his physical condition does not look that good in contrast to his two companions.

Anyway, their camping trip mostly goes well as they walk across some forest area of the Catskills during next several hours. While he shows more clumsiness when they are about to set up their respective tents, Matt soon gets more accustomed to their camping trip, and the mood becomes more relaxed when Sam prepares an evening meal she is going to have along with her father and Matt. As watching her preparing three bowls of ramen, I could not help but become a bit nostalgic about the occasional weekend-long mountain-climbing trips I took along with my father many years ago, though our hiking trips did not require that much in comparison.

In the meantime, we get to know Sam and her two adult companions bit by bit. While Chris is usually quite fastidious as your average perfectionist, Matt is often casual in his laid-back attitude, and we come to gather that their longtime friendship is based on how they have complemented each other in one way or another. Both of them divorced once, and, as shown during the opening part of the film, Chris has been currently married to some younger woman who recently gave birth to their baby. 

Sam tries to enjoy the camping trip as much as she can, but we gradually sense some discontent behind her mostly phlegmatic appearance. Sandwiched between her two adult companions, she is sometimes expected to nurse their fragile male egos, and that is how she starts to observe more of the human flaws of her father and his best friend – especially when she and they go through the last night of their camping trip. As Chris and Matt come to show more of their personal feelings and thoughts while incidentally becoming quite drunk, Sam becomes more observant while occasionally giving some emotional support to either of them, and then there comes a little uncomfortable moment when Matt blurts out something rather inappropriate when they have some talk during Chris’ absence.

Firmly sticking to its restrained storytelling approach even at that narrative point, the movie continues to build up a subtle sense of discomfort and conflict without spelling out anything too much to us. When Sam makes a sudden spiteful decision later in the story, we are not that surprised because we have already sensed what has been accumulated behind her reserved attitude, and the following finale is accompanied with some tension even though nothing much seems to be happening on the screen.

Like any good character drama films, the movie depends a lot on the efforts from its main performers, who did a splendid job of filling their respective roles with details and nuances to be observed. Although she only appeared in a few films including “Palm Trees and Power Lines” (2022) before this film, Lily Collias ably holds the center as vividly illustrating her character’s emotional journey along the story, and we may see more of her considerable talent during next several years. In case of James Le Gros and Danny McCarthy, they are equally engaging in their respective parts while never overshadowing their co-star at all, and we come to regard their characters as flawed human beings who often fail to recognize the thoughts and feelings of the girl they have known for years.       

As a quiet but haunting coming-of-age tale which, “The Good One” distinguishes itself a lot with not only its crisp ambiance and images of nature courtesy of cinematographer Wilson Cameron but also a number of subtle emotional moments to be appreciated. This is surely one of more interesting films of this year, and director/writer/co-producer India Donaldson makes a solid feature film debut here in this film. As far as I can see, she is a talented filmmaker to watch, and I will certainly have some expectation on her next film to come.