Speaker 1: It is very expensive to be alive right now. For
Speaker 1: the majority of folks attempting to get the basics food, water,
Speaker 1: and safety. There is a lot of day to day insecurity.
Speaker 1: Arge is a gig economy worker struggling to make ends meet,
Speaker 1: but then he finds a job with a very rich
Speaker 1: man and this chance encounter leads to Good Fortune.
Speaker 2: I'm Ronald Young Jr. And I'm leaving the theater. All right.
Speaker 1: This is Ronald and I Am leaving the theater after
Speaker 1: seeing good Fortune. Good Fortune written and directed by Azi's
Speaker 1: I'm Sorry, starring Seth Rogen, AZ's I'm Sorry, Keiki Palmer,
Speaker 1: Sandra O, and Keanu Reeves. And for a complete cast listing,
Speaker 1: you can go to the link in our show notes.
Speaker 1: It is just me today. Good Fortune is about a
Speaker 1: gig economy worker who was hired to be a very
Speaker 1: wealthy man's assistant. The gig economy worker played by Aziz
Speaker 1: I'm Sorry, is struggling very hard with his life and
Speaker 1: he is looking for some sort of relief, if you will,
Speaker 1: and Keanu Reeves plays an angel whose entire realm of
Speaker 1: responsibility is to stop people from texting and driving. And
Speaker 1: Seth Rogan is the wealthy man that Aziz finds himself
Speaker 1: working for. At some point in the movie, azaz and
Speaker 1: Seth Rogan switch places and due to the influence of
Speaker 1: the angel Gabriel played by Keanu Reeves, and as a result,
Speaker 1: Seth Rogan is now a gig economy worker and assistant
Speaker 1: to Aziz on Sorry, who is now a very wealthy man.
Speaker 1: It's a comedy, which if that's not obvious from the
Speaker 1: names that I said, Hi, you now know because I
Speaker 1: told you. Keiki Palmer is also in the movie and
Speaker 1: she plays a love interest for Aziz I'm Sorry, and
Speaker 1: they both play the role very well.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: I really liked this movie. I really liked this movie.
Speaker 1: I think it would be very easy for a film
Speaker 1: like this which is made by folks who are all
Speaker 1: very wealthy. Aziz I'm Sorry got money, Seth Rogan got money,
Speaker 1: Kiki Poper got money, Sandra O got money, Keanu Reeves
Speaker 1: has money. But the film is done with such care
Speaker 1: and attention and accuracy about the wealth gap, because that's
Speaker 1: essentially what this movie is. It is commentary on the
Speaker 1: wealth gap. Essentially, what this film does that other films
Speaker 1: like this, like say Trading Places, don't do is. It
Speaker 1: basically plays into the idea of if you were to
Speaker 1: switch places with a rich person just because you learned
Speaker 1: some sort of cartoonish lesson, i e. If you are
Speaker 1: Ebenezer Scrooge and you switch places with a poor person,
Speaker 1: would you learn the lesson or would you just want
Speaker 1: to be rich again? And essentially a large portion of
Speaker 1: the movie is everyone coming to the conclusion to some points,
Speaker 1: at some points in a very hilarious way, that being
Speaker 1: poor and actually not even being poor, not being rich sucks. Essentially,
Speaker 1: this entire setup, all of capitalism, pushes us to want
Speaker 1: to be rich, to basically try to find comfort in
Speaker 1: working as hard as we can to obtain as much
Speaker 1: as we can. And what I found surprising was that
Speaker 1: when Asis I'm Sorry switches places with seth Rogen, the
Speaker 1: movie does not let this idea off the hook. It
Speaker 1: basically says, why would I want to be poor again
Speaker 1: if I were rich now, especially in this society, which
Speaker 1: I felt like was a very audacious position to take,
Speaker 1: because it's honest. It's very honest, because there's so many
Speaker 1: people that at the level that we're at now would
Speaker 1: claim to say when I get rich, I will do
Speaker 1: X Y and Z for my friends, for my family,
Speaker 1: for poor folks, whatever. And this movie is basically putting
Speaker 1: its money where its mouth is in a very significant
Speaker 1: way that I just really enjoyed watching. And I think
Speaker 1: at one point there's a character who I will not
Speaker 1: reveal too much, but at one point there's a character
Speaker 1: who is going through the process of discovering what it's
Speaker 1: like to actually have to get a second job, have
Speaker 1: to get a third job, figure out how to pay bills,
Speaker 1: how expensive it is to be poor.
Speaker 2: They get their car towed.
Speaker 1: To unpaid parking tickets, and they find out that they
Speaker 1: have to pay all the tickets and the impound fee
Speaker 1: and the tofie and the impound fee increases every single day.
Speaker 1: So it's expensive to be poor. And as they're experiencing it,
Speaker 1: every time we see this character, they're just a little
Speaker 1: bit more stressed out, and they they depict this in
Speaker 1: ways that were funny, and the audience laughed at but
Speaker 1: I found myself watching this and not laughing nearly as much,
Speaker 1: not because it's not funny. It is funny, but because
Speaker 1: it was hitting the nail on the head. It was
Speaker 1: so accurate that it felt like I was giving humph,
Speaker 1: like those types of laughs as opposed to like big
Speaker 1: belly laughs. I had a couple of big belly laughs.
Speaker 1: But the movie is just it rings the bell about
Speaker 1: the wealth gap, just over and over again. For most
Speaker 1: people that know about it, this is not going to
Speaker 1: be a surprise to you, but you might find yourself
Speaker 1: pleasantly amused at the way that they tell this story.
Speaker 1: I think the only other way that I know how
Speaker 1: to compare this is if you enjoyed The Good Place,
Speaker 1: you will likely also enjoy this because this is some
Speaker 1: of the same work they were doing in the Good Place.
Speaker 1: How much good do I have to do to make
Speaker 1: it into heaven? Even if I did everything right, if
Speaker 1: I crossed every te and doted every I would that
Speaker 1: be enough to make it into the Good Place? And
Speaker 1: this film is the same way. It's saying you now
Speaker 1: have wealth, Now what are you going to do about it?
Speaker 1: It's funny because it also because the runtime is a
Speaker 1: tight ninety and I mean a tight ninety even the
Speaker 1: credits weren't long. This by the time I get to
Speaker 1: the end, it puts me in a position where I
Speaker 1: could just sit and think about what I just watched,
Speaker 1: you know, like I'm not necessarily, I'm not worn out.
Speaker 1: From the time that I watched the film, it has
Speaker 1: a beginning, middle, and an end, and even the parts
Speaker 1: that I started to wonder are they going too far
Speaker 1: with this?
Speaker 2: As I started to think that it.
Speaker 1: Switches and that is just it's so that was satisfying
Speaker 1: to me. That was very, very satisfying to me. I
Speaker 1: don't want to talk too much about this without talking
Speaker 1: about disease. I'm sorry. He had an incident that came
Speaker 1: up when he was accused of let's say, improper treatment
Speaker 1: during a date. He did not behave so well during
Speaker 1: a date, and it was kind of lumped up along
Speaker 1: with every other me too story that happened at the time,
Speaker 1: and of course, pawing closer examination, everyone agreed that this
Speaker 1: wasn't exactly me too as much as it was disease.
Speaker 2: Please do better when you go on dates.
Speaker 1: Please read the room we were on a date, that
Speaker 1: type of thing, y'all can read about that story. As
Speaker 1: a result, there was a lot of projects that Disease
Speaker 1: had that kind of went up and smoke. And I
Speaker 1: was a person that I'd seen A Z's live few times.
Speaker 1: I watched all his stand ups, I enjoyed everything that
Speaker 1: he was on television wise, parks and recreation, and I
Speaker 1: remember and then of course Master of None, which was
Speaker 1: an excellent show on Netflix.
Speaker 2: And after all.
Speaker 1: Of this happened with him, he kind of receded from
Speaker 1: the public eye and took some time. And I saw
Speaker 1: his stand up when he came back into the public eye,
Speaker 1: and I remember he basically was talking about what the
Speaker 1: situation was like for him. He apologizes, and he's kind
Speaker 1: of apologized a lot about everything that had happened, and
Speaker 1: I was really interested to see him get back to work,
Speaker 1: get back to the thing that he does well, because
Speaker 1: he does good work. Master of None is a very
Speaker 1: contemplative series that really impacted me. I really didn't care
Speaker 1: for the Lena Wafe season, but before that, the seasons
Speaker 1: that were focused on in the disease, I really enjoyed.
Speaker 1: And I guess I'm saying that to say for this
Speaker 1: to be the piece of work that is kind of
Speaker 1: his signature work since those days, it's a good piece
Speaker 1: for him to come back with. And he's still as
Speaker 1: sharp as I remember him being. He's still funny. He
Speaker 1: acts in it, obviously, and he directed it did a
Speaker 1: great job. There's a lot of great shots in this film.
Speaker 1: It's written well. Yeah, I just I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: And I think again, because the runtime is so short
Speaker 1: at ninety minutes, it's really hard pressed for me to
Speaker 1: find someone that I wanted to show this movie to
Speaker 1: and not easily have them walk away saying, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was good. At the bare minimum, I think they're saying,
Speaker 1: oh that was cute. That was cute. So yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess the question is now that I like it
Speaker 1: as much as I like Sinners, which I gave five
Speaker 1: stars to, And man, that's actually a tough question because
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed Sinners, but I also really enjoyed this.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed this. With all of that being said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give this film four point five stars. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give it four point five stars. I think I
Speaker 1: like Cinners just a little bit more. And I do
Speaker 1: think when they get to the ending of good Fortune,
Speaker 1: there was a direction I wish they had taken and
Speaker 1: they didn't. I think that it ends in probably the
Speaker 1: most peaceable way, but not necessarily in a way that
Speaker 1: would have been the most satisfying to me. And I
Speaker 1: think there was an avenue for this movie to end
Speaker 1: in a more satisfying way, but they didn't quite take
Speaker 1: that route. So that's the only thing I'll knock point
Speaker 1: five stars off for. Other than that, I enjoyed this film.
Speaker 1: I'd watch this if it were a series.
Speaker 2: It's not. It's a movie. It's only ninety minutes.
Speaker 1: So yeah, four point five of five stars and with
Speaker 1: that leaving the theater is a production of Oh It's
Speaker 1: Big Round Studios. I mixed this episode Today's Tuesday. I
Speaker 1: went to a press screening. I had to be here
Speaker 1: by I like to get here around like six point
Speaker 1: thirty six forty five. Movie starts at seven, and I
Speaker 1: got here probably at six forty five, and I sat
Speaker 1: in one of the only empty seats, only empty good
Speaker 1: seats in the theater, next to this guy who was
Speaker 1: kind of making a lot of mouth noises and smelt
Speaker 1: a little strong, if you will. And I guess I
Speaker 1: would have made it sooner, but this theater in rush
Speaker 1: hour is about fifty minutes to an.
Speaker 2: Hour from my home.
Speaker 1: As a result, I could have waited til the weekend,
Speaker 1: but I would have had to pay for those tickets.
Speaker 1: This was a press screening, so this was the screening
Speaker 1: that I needed to go to. That is the type
Speaker 1: of calculus that goes into every decision that I make
Speaker 1: when it comes to leaving the theater. It's not easy.
Speaker 1: It's a labor of love, but it is labor. If
Speaker 1: that means something to you, you should become a patron.
Speaker 1: You can go to patreon dot com slash leave in
Speaker 1: the Theater. When you join Patreon, you get access to
Speaker 1: early releases of each week's podcast episode. You'll get them
Speaker 1: on Sunday, what everyone else gets them on Monday. Or
Speaker 1: this past week which was a holiday, everyone got it
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, and Patreon members still got it on Sunday,
Speaker 1: So that's two days earlier than everyone else. And that'll
Speaker 1: happen every time I edit. As soon as I'm done
Speaker 1: editing the episode, the first thing I do is post
Speaker 1: it to Patreon and it's commercial free there. There's no
Speaker 1: ads on there. You get access to I don't like that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna post a new episode this week. You get
Speaker 1: access to On the Couch, which is a video podcast.
Speaker 1: Now the next episode I will be doing as the
Speaker 1: Running Man with Arnold Schwarzenegger in order to get ready
Speaker 1: for the new Running Man with Glenn Powell, and you
Speaker 1: get dissatisfaction of knowing that you're helping Leaving the Theater
Speaker 1: continue to exist. It has been a joy finding out
Speaker 1: ways to give more to patron members, so I appreciate y'all.
Speaker 1: I just need y'all to recognize that this is a
Speaker 1: labor of love. But it is labor if that means
Speaker 1: something to you. Go to patreon dot com slash Leave
Speaker 1: in the Theater or go to the link in our
Speaker 1: show notes. Show art from Heather Wilder. Theme music by
Speaker 1: the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. For more information about good Fortune,
Speaker 1: check out our show notes. You can follow me on Instagram,
Speaker 1: Blue Sky, TikTok, threads, or Letterbox at ODS Big Round
Speaker 1: That's at O h I T S b I g
Speaker 1: R O N. You can find out more about this
Speaker 1: show on other ODIs Big Round Studio shows by following
Speaker 1: us on Instagram at ODS Big Round Studios.
Speaker 2: Leaving the Theater will be back soon. Thanks for listening.