GOOD FORTUNE
Starring: Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari, Keanu Reeves, Keke Palmer, and Sandra Oh
Director: Aziz Ansari
ADRIANO
After showing outstanding directorial chops on his excellent Netflix series Master of None, I was disappointed to see Aziz Ansari go down a visually generic route for his feature debut. There's not a lot about Good Fortune that sticks out, aside from Keanu Reeves' fish-out-of-water running gag that elicited the most laughs and a sincere (albeit not that effective) life-affirming message for people in hard times. But I didn't laugh enough, and I found a lot of the story beats unengaging. I appreciate the attempts by Ansari, but I'll forget about this movie sooner than I had hoped.
NICK
I will preface my review here by saying that I’ve never been a fan of Aziz Ansari, so Good Fortune already had an uphill battle to climb. Even with that caveat, this is still just a run-of-the-mill, relatively forgettable comedy. An entertaining fish-out-of-water performance from Keanu Reeves aside, this just didn’t supply frequent enough laughs, as it's reminiscent of a movie that would have come out in the nineties as opposed to a present day feature. I know we’ve been harping on a return to theatres for studio comedies, but this one would likely have been better left for streaming.
AMARÚ
Keanu Reeves as a fish-out-of-water angel, naively yucking it up with Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogen was absolutely perfect casting in Good Fortune. His genuine joy in this sweet comedy makes it really hard to not want to believe in people. And that’s great, because as likably funny as Ansari is, he is really hard to believe in this role. When Aziz is front and center, the great messaging of this story doesn’t feel earned or authentic. But coupled with Reeves and Rogen, his writing is elevated by experienced comedic actors who can brush the flaws aside to create a light and breezy time.
This film was reviewed by Nick and Adriano as part of Bitesize Breakdown's coverage of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.