How could two little letters that have captured the attention of the world so furiously over the past half-decade? It’s the kind of hot-button issue that seems so common nowadays in the constantly churning and toiling rage-machine of proper society. If you walked up to some random joe-schmo on the street and asked him for his opinion on the AI-pocalypse, there’s a fat chance he’ll shoot you an opinion. Whether or not he swings one way or the other, the fact that joe-schmo, mister crust-of-the-earth, of all people has an opinion on advanced artificial intelligence tells you everything you need to know about how massive of an issue this seems to be in society.
Enter Gore Verbinski. He’s an audacious auteur known for his blockbuster scale and eccentric weirdness in his films. With works like the first three “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies and the wonderfully strange “Rango” (which earned Verbinski an Academy Award), it’s no wonder that he would take on a topic like this. And what we received is bold, eclectic and undeniably weird.
With a script from Matthew Robinson, “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” follows a man from the future (played here by a gleefully unhinged Sam Rockwell) as he recruits a cadre of diner patrons to help save the world from an evil AI, all while fighting off a litany of enemies– including hired guns, a hive-mind of phone-addicted teenagers and a… uhm… well… you’ll just have to see the movie for yourself.
To start, it would be a mistake to call this film’s script very sharp, as the film’s message to society is about as sharp as blunt-force trauma to the head. With plot elements like people being addicted to technology to the point where they reject the real world entirely and school shootings being treated as unremarkable everyday occurrences, if you can’t parse together that this is a satire of American life in the 2020s, then this whole ‘movie-going’ thing might not be entirely for you. The film is dark and it revels in it. The film’s themes aren’t as daringly incisive as a higher art might aspire to portray, but instead chooses to sit back and laugh at society for all its mortal flaws. We might all be entertaining ourselves to death, but goddamn it, the movie understands just how funny it all is.
While Rockwell’s “Man from the Future” (he’s never given an explicit name), is undeniably the star of the show and brings the killer kinetic force that drives the film. The supporting cast of “Good Luck” bring their own unique energies in supplementary sideplots, each sub-story bringing a new perspective on the perceived horrors that technology is inflicting upon society. Likely the best of these little “parables” stars Juno Temple’s Susan– a tale constantly switching back-and-forth between a bleeding-heart story about the loss of a child and some of the bleakest and darkest satirical comedy you will see all year.
This film is a kinetic experience like nothing else you’ll experience all year– frenzied, madcap and absolutely insane. It lives up to its title and so much more. Some may feel underprepared and overwhelmed and that’s the point. The satire may feel on the nose (and it is) but this is not to the film’s detriment– it only adds and adds and builds and builds until the absolutely and utterly insane climatic finale. It’s a wild ride and a raucous, farcical parable of the modern world.
Rating: 9/10
