Aziz Ansari can breathe a sigh of relief. He is officially a feature film director. His previous debut project, Being Mortal, was shelved following allegations against a lead actor for bad behaviour on set. His next one, Good Fortune – which he also wrote –was nearly scrapped too, this time due to the 2023 writers’ strike. Luckily, for Ansari, and for us, he stuck it out. The result is a fun comedy with plenty to say about politics and the stratification of class in modern American society.

To get there, Good Fortune unites several movie tropes into its brisk 98-minute runtime. Firstly, there’s a big serving of It’s a Wonderful Life. Struggling aspiring filmmaker Arj (Ansari) moonlights in the gig economy, doing underpaid odd jobs for an Airtasker-like app. In his off-time, he tries to woo co-worker Elena (Keke Palmer), but romance is hard when you live in an old beaten up VW Golf.

After a series of humiliations, Arj loses his job and his desire to keep on. He’s saved by Gabriel (Keanu Reeves), a benevolent if slightly dim-witted angel who intervenes and swaps Arj’s life, for one week, with facile tech-investor Jeff (Seth Rogen). But Gabriel’s plan backfires. Arj loves his new flashy status and refuses to swap back. Jeff – now stripped of money and status – and Gabriel – stripped of his wings by the angel-council (fronted by Sandra Oh) – are each forced to make it on their own in hyper-capitalist Los Angeles.

From here, Good Fortune moves into Trading Places territory. Much like Dan Aykroyd’s stuffy Wall Street banker, Rogan’s Jeff is forced for the first time to confront the consequences of the tiered system that makes him rich, the system that that rewards an elite few at the expense of a new, and increasingly non-white, underclass. As the film points out in several comic montages, one cannot exist without the other. To put it another way, we try not to think about the working conditions of the guy delivering our breakfast burrito, whether he has sick leave or time to see his family. All we care about is that he’s five minutes late.

But if all this sounds heavy, rest assured, Good Fortune is squarely a comedy, and a good one at that. Sitting behind the politics is the bones of a Bill and Ted slacker comedy. And thank the heavens for Keanu Reeves, who is masterful as the beautiful, naïve Gabriel. After being disgraced and “de-angel-ified”, Gabriel is, for the first time, able to live a human life, eating tacos, doing magic mushrooms, dancing and smoking cigarettes and hooking up.

Good Fortune reminds us that Reeves has a knack for this transcendental stoner comedy; his nobility and earnestness juxtapose brilliantly against the relatable human quandaries Gabriel finds himself in. To Gabriel, to whom all these experiences elicit wonder, the trappings of the rich and the poor are not so different. Humans, rich or poor, are enlivened by the same things; friendship, comfort, food, safety, sex. Good Fortune suggests that maybe we’d all be a bit happier if we focused on sharing it round, rather than hoarding it for ourselves.

 

Good Fortune is currently playing in cinemas.