Comedian Aziz Ansari makes the leap to the director’s chair in the upcoming Good Fortune. Our Chris Bumbray found the movie enjoyable enough due to Keanu Reeves. In his review from TIFF, he says, “In the end, Good Fortune’s biggest laughs mainly land because of the superb casting of Reeves, although Ansari and Rogen are a little less successful in their roles due to feeling too familiar. Yet, the movie is so big-hearted that it’s hard to hold too much against it. While I’ve seen better comedies this year (The Naked Gun is one), I still had a few good chuckles while watching this and walked out with a smile on my face. It’s not one of the truly memorable films I’ve seen at TIFF this year, but it’s pleasant enough.”
The film deals with classism and one aspect of the film has both Ansari and Seth Rogen’s characters supporting themselves by doing food delivery. According to MovieMaker, Ansari talked about the research he did for his script, which included doing DoorDash. The Parks and Rec star explained, “I went and did DoorDash and I talked to people that did that stuff. I interviewed people who slept in their cars. I talked to a guy who tried to unionize his Home Depot to help me write Keke’s character. And that stuff is your best friend, because you don’t need to live the experience if you do the research, and do a version of living whatever you’re trying to figure out.”
Ansari says he was inspired by Darren Aronofsky, who had researched wrestling and ballet before doing The Wrestler and Black Swan. “You want someone who’s dealt with this stuff not to watch it and roll their eyes, but instead to watch and go, ‘Whoa. How’d they know that?” he expounded.
The Good Fortune writer/director also shared what he learned while doing DoorDash, “Well, of course, everybody knows it’s not fun. But it is a bit dystopian in terms of, you know, so much of your time you’re not even getting paid. You’re waiting for gigs and driving around town. You’re losing money on gas. You have a car that’s maybe a little bit older, and it’s getting beat up doing all this driving all around L.A. and that’s a cost, and you do a delivery and someone might not tip you at all. Or the order’s not ready. There’s so many things that are going wrong.”
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