Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
Gore Verbinski’s first film in a decade is many things, but more importantly, it’s removed from the studio system. I cannot imagine one of the major studios releasing a film as scrappy, darkly funny- and as critical about AI and the all-mighty algorithm- as “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.” This is a side of him we haven’t seen since prior to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy, and I’m not mad- it makes the film that much more of a wonderful surprise.
The screenplay by Matthew Robinson has social satire and humor to go with its genre settings, which is not surprising given his previous screenplays for “Love and Monsters” and his directorial effort, “The Invention of Lying.” Here, we begin with a man who looks quite grungy, and looking like he came from the same future Bruce Willis’s character did in “12 Monkeys.” He is only known as the “man from the future,” and he comes into a restaurant strapped with what looks like a bomb. He starts talking to the customers like he has seen them before. This is not his first trip back to this moment. He is looking for the right combination of people to help him save the world. Will a married couple of teachers (Michael Pena and Zazie Beetz), an Uber driver (Asim Chaudhry), a reserved mother (Juno Temple) and a young woman who’s allergic to technology (Haley Lu Richardson) be the right pairing?
Terry Gilliam’s time travel thriller- and its inspiration, “La Jette”- seem to have been a primary inspiration for Robinson’s script. Sam Rockwell’s “man from the future” is more outwardly insane than Willis’s Cole, but he’s still haunted by something that’s happened to him. Everyone in this group he’s found is, actually, and it has to do with modern technology. AI and the algorithm have the world of the film in its grasp, and apparently, Rockwell’s character has learned who the person is that is going to supercharge AI and the algorithm to destroy the world as they know it, although- as we see in the character’s flashbacks- that is already happening. At the school Pena and Beetz work at, all the teenagers do is stare at their phones, and if you try to disrupt it, well, bad things happen. Temple’s mother lost her son in a school shooting, but through AI, he’s able to live again, but something is just…off. Richardson’s character is one that Rockwell’s has not taken before- is there a deeper reason for that? You can probably guess so, as the film goes on.
I really enjoyed “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.” The performances hit all the right notes- and it’s a great showcase for Rockwell’s manic personality. This film feels like Verbinski is allowed to really show his humanity and biting social commentary side in a way no other film has afforded him since “The Weather Man,” and I really loved what it brought out of in his work. Yes, the longer it went on, the easier it was to telegraph where the story was going, but this was an enjoyable adventure. If you’re a genre fan, and a fan of technology run amok movies, “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” has a lot going for it.
