‘Good One’ Review: Revelation in the Woods

“Good One” is a drama about human relationships, but it starts with close-up shots of plants and insects, setting the scene in more ways than one. Yes, the characters will spend most of the movie in the woods, and high summer in upstate New York is quite literally full of dirt, bugs and leafy canopies. But contemplating the rich greens and earthy red-browns, I found myself pondering life cycles, the mutating forms and constant shifts of the natural world — and of human life, too. I don’t think that’s an accident.

The “good one” of the title is Sam (Lily Collias), who is 17 and on a camping trip with her high-strung father, Chris (James Le Gros), and one of his oldest friends, an underemployed actor named Matt (Danny McCarthy). Matt’s son was supposed to come too, but bailed in a fit of pique, still bitter about his parents’ divorce. So it’s just Sam and the men.

Sam is exactly the type to get called the “good one” — not because she’s a prim Goody Two-shoes, but because she’s the sort of teenage girl that adults, especially adult men, feel comfortable around. She’s levelheaded and knows how to snark when necessary. In the woods, she pulls more than her own weight — she can pitch a tent, load up a day pack, filter water, build a fire and cook steaming bowls of ramen. She’ll take advice, but she’s equally good at giving it, an independent thinker with whom any grown-up could talk.

And boy, do Chris and Matt talk. Their relationship is rife with old rivalries and structured by all the selves they once were, all the way back to nearly Sam’s age. You can see them fall into an old script, Matt the hapless mess who packs all the wrong stuff and Chris the organized leader who gets mad when the energy bars aren’t in the right place.

Sam observes her father’s digs at Matt as they trek across the forest for three days, often silently, only her eyes betraying her thoughts. She has seen this dynamic her whole life. It unnerves her a little, the realization that these guys in their 50s, a couple of life stages ahead of her, are as immature as the boys she knows from home.