Good Fortune

Well if you thought poor “Clarence” was a bit hopeless in “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) then wait til you meet “Gabriel” (Keanu Reeves). He’s an entry-level angel, replete with stunted wings, who is charged with stopping careless drovers from texting whilst crashing. He’s bored, and so when he spots the down-at-heel “Ari” (Aziz Ansari) he believes he might have discovered a pet project for himself. This man works in one of those rent-a-person jobs running errands for folks and living on their meagre tips. One such trip sees him at the luxurious home of “Jeff” (Seth Rogan). He’s supposed to clean out his garage, but proves a bit more invaluable than that and is soon hired as his personal factotum. He even gets a company Amex card! That proves very handy when he takes his date “Rosa” (Bianca Araceli) to a restaurant recommended by his new boss and finds the bill pretty eye-watering. Of course, “Jeff” isn’t impressed, promptly fires the man and this is where our angelic intervention goes a bit wonky. “Jeff” and “Ari” swap roles. The former now finds himself homeless and broke, the latter comfortably off in his hilltop palace and poor old “Gabriel” suitably de-winged by his furious boss “Martha” (Sandra Oh) who declares that he will only get them back when he has sorted out his mischief. To do that he needs both men to consent to the swap, but what chance? Especially as an angel with no wings or powers he is not much use when it comes to putting food in their mouths and “Ari” is now all too readily settled in his cashmere and champagne luxury. If you saw the recent “Freaky Friday” remake then this follows similar lines with loads of daft antics combining a good dose of venality with an element of doing the right thing quite amiably. Rogan and Ansari both deliver entertainingly but it’s really Reeves who steals the show as his dejection grows, he turns to all-night dishwashing, chain smoking and begins to realise that there is a lot more to the human being lark than he’d anticipated. There’s nothing especially innovative from the writing or the production, really, it is just a fun stroll that pokes some fun at the fabulously wealthy (who don’t really do anything for their buck) and the struggling family man who works flat out but still has to sleep in his car (until it is towed). Good fun.

Late-stage capitalism... yay
From a technical standpoint this movie has it. It has great visuals, lovely cast, great sound, good music.

But that's not why you watch movies, at least not solely. You watch them to feel something. And this movie only makes you feel even more bereft of space and validity in this late-stage capitalism hellscape we live in. It isn't uplifting. It isn't enlightening. It is not even funny half the time. It just points out how bleak the world is, and I knew that already.

Aziz Ansari’s feature directorial debut hit more marks than it missed. It was entertaining enough to be fun, contained enough substance to provoke thoughtful insight, and made clever jokes that we’ve come to know from Aziz Ansari. No breakout performances by any means if anything Keanu Reeves was the worst but with mediocre performances all around it’s hard to not pay attention to the actual plot. We’ve seen this plot done SO many times but this one was still fun and worth a watch when it streams.