This review was originally part of our coverage of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Every once in a while, there is a newcomer who gives such a commanding leading performance that it immediately makes them one to watch in anything and everything they set out to do. Think of the magnificent Lily Gladstone, who remains the best example of this, when she made her shattering breakout performance with Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women to understand what such a moment can feel like. These points in a newcomer’s career are among the most thrilling experiences that can come from opening your mind to films with people whose names you may not know yet, though you won’t be able to forget as soon as you see them work. The latest to make such an unforgettable impression is Lily Collias, who crafts an understated though no less arresting performance in writer-director India Donaldson’s feature debut Good One. Though Collias played a supporting role in last year’s Palm Trees and Power Lines, which has some thematic similarities to this one, she steps into the spotlight here to bring us completely into the life of a teenager going backpacking with her father and his friend. It marks the arrival of two exciting new voices in Donaldson and Collias.

What Is ‘Good One’ About?

The film is all about Sam (Collias), though it is also just as much about her father, Chris (James Le Gros), and his friend, Matt (Danny McCarthy). The trio is going on a three-day backpacking trip in the Catskills, gorgeous mountains in southeastern New York State, that originally was supposed to include Matt’s son. This is quickly upended as, when Chris and Sam go to pick them up, we see an intense argument between the two spilling out onto the street. Though Sam offers to go talk to his son about this, Matt petulantly brushes this off and just leaves him. Thus, the four are now three and Sam will have to deal with the patriarchs all on her own. The experience then becomes one that can rapidly change from being occasionally fun to more annoying, with the two supposed adults incessantly bickering, and ultimately darkly depressing in one key turn near the end that is built upon all of this. It makes for an all-consuming film as Donaldson captures the particulars of this trip with such patience and precision that the growing discomfort becomes almost suffocating. Sam loves her dad and enjoys these trips. They may even be ones she remembers fondly later in life, though it is also beyond infuriating to see how she is treated at nearly every turn.

This is all then juxtaposed with the beauty of the landscape that is captured perfectly by cinematographer Wilson Cameron and given even more life via the score by Celia Hollander. There are many moments where Donaldson just slows everything down to take all this in, fusing the splendor of these rich images with peaceful yet potent music. That the film has drawn some comparisons to Reichardt perhaps makes sense. This is both because Le Gros was previously in the aforementioned Certain Women and because Reichardt’s latest, the sublime Showing Up, has many such moments of more peaceful contemplation. Hell, there are even moments in Good One where you hear some notes that might lead you to wonder if André 3000 was also playing the flute here again as well as it almost sounds like he might be.

However, while this comparison is a testament to Donaldson’s confidence in how she writes and directs, this is still largely reductive, as each is doing different things on a thematic level. Most notably, Good One is about a young person stuck having to appease the egos of adults. The way Donaldson explores this feels so authentic that it can be agonizing as we feel every casual moment of disrespect shown to Sam. They will ask for her advice, valuing her thoughts only when it has to do with them in some way, though will also just as quickly minimize what she’s feeling. It is all done so flippantly by both that you realize it has always been this way.

The discomforting reality is that this is how such dynamics can and do happen. Though there are always going to be moments of joy sprinkled throughout, whether it is when joking around in a slightly more reciprocal way or when beholding a breathtaking view, they become contaminated with just how cruel the two men are without a second thought. For all the ways that we can see Sam enjoys going on these types of trips, Donaldson delicately balances this with a growing sense of all-too-common dread in each scene. Details about the men’s insecurities come crashing down like an avalanche and threaten to bury anyone around underneath as an otherwise normal conversation can suddenly swerve into more troubling territory. Despite being in the grand beauty of nature, they remain anything but humbled as they manage to make nearly every single thing about them. In many ways, Good One is a gentle film, especially when we get to see moments with Sam by herself, free from her exhausting traveling companions. Of course, they never last long. It is a simple yet effective way to show how the mere presence of the men, so wrapped up in themselves that they miss the forest for the trees, is dragging her down. While one wishes there was more room given to stepping away from this, it makes one scene near the end carry that much more weight.

Lily Collias Is Outstanding in ‘Good One’

Through it all, Collias is so confident and assured that it feels like this is her fiftieth leading role instead of her first. While both Le Gros and McCarthy are equally convincing in their roles, they are nothing compared to her. They both get more lines, but she is the one that speaks volumes in every single moment. The way Collias makes her way through each scene is nothing short of spectacular, as we feel every emotion she must cautiously express with hesitancy that it hurts. This culminates in a deeply disturbing shift when Sam finds herself put in a position that could represent real and imminent danger. This gets even more grim in one of the final conversation scenes where she speaks up about what happened only to be downplayed by the person she should be able to trust most. It is a betrayal that, as we see Collias capture a multitude of realizations crossing across Sam’s face, cuts like a knife.

All the tranquility of nature is corrupted by this as it takes what should be a beautiful memory and poisons it for what will likely be forever. In the same way that Charlotte Wells masterfully revealed how a father can be someone who is broken and hurting in Aftersun, Donaldson shows how they can also be the ones causing the immense hurt. Though the way this subsequently wraps up could easily be perceived as being too neat, this is precisely the point. Just as she had been expected to do so throughout the film, Sam is essentially made to accept a contrived solution that falls far short of showing her basic respect. The emptiness of what is meant to be a caring gesture from her father, proving to be both too little and too late, serves as one closing demonstration of his profound inadequacy. She will outgrow both of these men, if she hasn’t already done so, though it is in this perilous time when she still must contend with their callousness that Donaldson and Collias create a striking cinematic portrait. Much like the beauty of the trees through which they walk on their trip, Sam has the potential to reach the sky and tower above it all. If only it were not for those who cut her down.