Attempt as he may, Aziz Ansari can’t fairly appear to learn the room. One of many extra egregious examples of late was the comedian’s resolution to carry out at Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Competition. Ansari defended his alternative to assist culturally launder the régime’s authoritarian fame on a latest episode of Jimmy Kimmel Stay!, pledging to offer a portion of the price he obtained to Human Rights Watch. The organisation subsequently rejected the donation, a spokesperson telling Selection final week that it couldn’t settle for what primarily quantities to blood cash.
Ethics underneath capitalism are a guiding theme of Good Fortune, a high-concept however principally unremarkable body-swap comedy exploring the demise of the American Dream. The actor-turned-filmmaker (who additionally wrote the script) stars as Arj, a down-on-his-luck documentary editor attempting to make ends meet in LA. Having to endure the humiliations of app-based gig work and dwelling out of his automotive, Arj ultimately catches a break when he meets Jeff (Seth Rogen), a enterprise capitalist tech bro dwelling giant in a Bel Air mansion.
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Jeff’s world – snacking on burrata, taking conferences over imported omakase and experimenting with distinction remedy from his private sauna – bewitches Arj nearly instantly. He efficiently pitches himself as Jeff’s new assistant, and when he sparks a romantic connection along with his co-worker, Elena (a woefully under-utilised Keke Palmer), it seems like his luck is lastly turning round.
However it doesn’t final lengthy. Jeff fires him for utilizing the corporate card on a lavish date with Elena, and he’s again to sq. one. Exhausted and demoralised, Arj edges in the direction of suicidality as a celestial energy watches on from above: a guardian angel named Gabriel (Keanu Reeves) who decides he should intervene. We study that Gabriel is a low-ranking angel whose major project is to save lots of individuals from texting-while-driving accidents by tapping them on the shoulder. He envies Azrael (Stephen McKinley Henderson) who wields extra accountability as a shepherd of ‘misplaced souls’ and has a pair of far bigger feathered wings to indicate for it.
Gabriel identifies Arj as a misplaced soul and adopts him as a type of private mission, utilizing his powers to have him commerce locations with Jeff within the hopes that the expertise will give him an appreciation of his personal life. In fact the plan backfires, and Arj refuses to modify again. Although the set-up is initially amusing, it shortly wears skinny; a lot of the next runtime is spent ready for Arj to alter his thoughts, with a newly-humbled Jeff and a dejected, demoted Gabriel, banished from his angelic duties and made to reside a human life, toiling in a kitchen as a dishwasher.
“I was a celestial being,” he laments. “Now I’m a chain-smoker.” The movie’s finest comedic moments are sometimes rooted within the supply of one-liners like these, however the jokes can turn into repetitive or have negligible affect. There are one too many unfunny Ansari-isms: cutesy turns of phrase like “rooster nuggies,” “burrata boys” or “dum-dum” seem advert nauseam, traces which may have felt much less misplaced a decade earlier, within the mouth of his quirked-up Parks and Recreation persona.
Good Fortune comes throughout as equally underbaked in its try at class commentary, gesturing at points like America’s more and more untenable revenue inequality, widespread exploitative working situations, automation’s position in devaluing human labour, the divisive evils of union-busting and extra – however the movie doesn’t have something extra subtle to say about these issues, apart from indicating that the state of affairs is, certainly… dangerous. Although its coronary heart is in the best place politically, the movie nonetheless comes throughout as small-minded, in that it’s solely capable of think about particular person liberation as a treatment. For Arj (and, it appears, Ansari), an important issues in life are laughing, dancing and consuming tacos. It’s a high-quality sentiment, if a little too pat, particularly when the movie’s wholly unmerited blissful ending boils all the way down to the trickle-down benevolence of the billionaire class.
Sadly, the schmaltzy mumblecore sensibilities that made Ansari’s Grasp of None a profitable outing don’t translate in Good Fortune, an observational comedy of paltry remark; a frothy, large studio concoction of little substance and even much less model.
