MOVIE REVIEW: GOOD FORTUNE

Shane | 5 November 2025 | Reply

MOVIE REVIEW: GOOD FORTUNE
Written by Aziz Ansari
Directed by Aziz Ansari
Starring Keanu Reeves, Aziz Ansari, Seth Rogan, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh

Aziz Ansari has written and directed this spotlight on the failures of Western Capitalism (at least on a personal level) and cast himself in the lead role of Arj, a guy struggling to get by – let alone get even half a step ahead – in the gig economy and sleeping out of his car.

The writing is intelligent and delicate, the story insightful and sharp, the performances spot on (Keanu Reeves as the slightly dim but eager angel Gabriel is simply wonderful, Seth Rogan does Seth Rogan as usual without much need for ‘acting’, Keke Palmer is as ‘normal’ as a Hollywood star can get – in fact, only Ansari himself seems a little out of place, Arj never quite seeming tired or scruffy enough to pass as a homeless person)… but there’s something a little askew about the film.

Ansari tries to show that compassion and empathy are the answer by having Gabriel – whose angelic tasks mandated by angel foreperson Martha (Sandra Oh) start and end with stopping people having accidents whilst texting and driving – going all in to help Arj by swapping his and rich guy Jeff (Rogan)’s lives for a week without authorisation.

Gabriel’s theory is that Arj will see that wealth doesn’t solve everything.

But, as anyone who has spent time living paycheque to paycheque (or worse) will attest – money itself may not solve anything, but the freedom from stress about how to pay the rent or mortgage; the bills; put food on the table; pay for necessary health care; put petrol in the car to get to a job to make enough money to put petrol in the car to get back there the next day; and all the other little financial things which crush our soul every single day; takes away so much stress and preoccupation that some happiness is almost guaranteed as a result.

SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!

Gabriel is stripped of his angel status (the scene where he tries food for the very first time is a delight), becomes a dishwasher and takes up smoking and drinking. Jeff struggles to make a buck doing the same AirTasker- and UberEATS-like jobs Arj was doing. Eventually Arj finally agrees to switch back (though mostly for the girl he’s sweet on (Palmer), not for any truly altruistic purposes) and Jeff sees the light, going on to improve pay and conditions for employees of his gig economy businesses.

Which is a very clear sign that this is a fantasy.

The chances of any megarich ‘techbro’ watching this and thinking, “hey, I didn’t realise it was so hard, let’s pay everyone a lot more even though that reduces our profits, and let’s just do it out of the kindness in my heart,” is roughly zero (more’s the pity).

Come for the laughs and the acting (both of which are very worthy), but be sure to take notice of the real problems out there that this is addressing in its well-meaning but light-hearted way, and dream of a better world – one where the capitalist cowboys, the ones born into money who just get richer and richer, aren’t sucking the soul out of our society, and where the ever-widening chasm between the haves and have nots isn’t unbridgeable, and the impossibility of breaking the nose dive of poverty isn’t so depressingly real.