In her nuanced feature film debut, director India Donaldson tackles the intricate relationship between two long-time male friends through the eyes of one of their teenage daughters. Selected in both Sundance and Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, “Good One” follows 17-year-old Sam (Lily Collias) as she goes on a camping trip with her father, Chris (James Le Gross), and his friend, Matt (Danny McCarthy). Throughout the journey, she observes the two poke and needle at one another, the tension amplifying due to their insecurities. All the while, Sam holds things together as she’s praised for being “good” and “wise,” while the adults fail to acknowledge the unfairness of her being in that position.
Donaldson imbues “Good One” with quiet tension and unexpected humor as we watch Sam comes to the realization we all do, at some point, that our parents are real, flawed individuals. We spoke to Donaldson about working on a tight shooting schedule, casting her breakthrough actress Collias, and the significance of finding movies in your formative years.
When did this idea start developing for you, and did you always know you wanted something like a coming-of-age story to be your first feature-length film?
It’s so funny. I never thought I’d make a coming-of-age film, or I didn’t have that idea. I was trying to pick the right movie for many years with characters that were closer to the age that I actually was. I think that, just because of the challenges of that film and the reframing of my approach, I felt this crazy urgency to make a film and write “Good One” with the scale of production in mind. I wanted it to be intimate, sensible, and modest about the scale of the story and the production size so it could still be ambitious about the emotional story I was telling. I always felt the biggest challenge would always be getting the right actors. If we could do that, we would set ourselves up to at least make something people want to watch.
The film was shot in twelve days. I assume that is as stressful as it sounds, but are there any benefits to that short schedule?
Yeah, James Le Gros always corrects me when I say twelve days. He says it was eleven because we lost one day to thunderstorms. We still used that time, but he reminded me we had lost plenty of time. I think that because it was fast, we — the producing team and myself — made sure to use our time leading up to the shoot well and prepare. I felt prepared to go into it and was thrilled with the actors we were working with. It felt like we could really execute it and not have to figure out the story we were trying to tell as we went.
I guess the benefit was not having a choice to linger with decisions. It helped us charge through it.
How did you decide on the location to be on a hike? Are you an avid hiker yourself?
Yeah, I’m not as avid as the characters in the movie, but I love camping and being outside and definitely grew up doing these things. Honestly, the practical idea of using the available light for most of the shoot was part of the inspiration. I do love those things and was interested in telling a story where the characters have relationships, not just to the outdoors but to the practicalities of being outdoors, where that could expose who they were and their relationships to each other.
I want to discuss Sam as a character since some of her traits are so relatable. What drew you to writing a character described as a “good one” and “wise beyond her years,” and how can that be a detriment?
I guess I was interested in that, in her obedience, and in how that is a character flaw. How that sort of — not that it’s her fault necessarily — but how it gets her into situations that she has to get out of and work her way out of. I don’t think I thought of myself as a good kid growing up, but as I left my twenties and entered my thirties almost a decade ago, I think I started to reflect on how my obedience got me into trouble. And how being comfortable with conflict can be a healthier way to communicate in the world, both professionally and personally.
Lily Collias is brilliant in this film, and she breaks my heart. Can you talk about casting her? What were you looking for while casting?
I really felt like I’d know it when I saw it. I wanted an actual teenager, someone close to the character’s age. Somebody who felt grounded, honest, and authentic. Not an idealized version of what a teenager is like. Honestly, meeting Lily exposed me to all how an actor can and does add so much to what you’ve written. The character changed fundamentally as soon as Lily inhabited her and for the better as it got so much deeper and more complex. Lily gave Sam a sense of humor, which was so cool — like she found Sam’s sense of humor among many other aspects of the character. I’m so proud of Lily and so proud of her work.
I read you left room for improvisation. Is this something where you write space into the script for these moments, or do they happen organically while shooting?
It really came out of the process of doing it and finding moments. There’s a scene where the two guys are sitting at the bar, and I’d written the scene to end with little dialogue in it. When we shot it, Lily and I were standing to the side, just yelling out prompts for things for them to talk about it. They then came up with their own, and we just let them go for a while. It’s more like I had scenarios in my mind where there was room for improv, but not many of them. I also felt inspired, especially by James and Lily’s dynamic, because they really felt like father and daughter. Some of it has to be cut out of the movie because it was indulging a bit and not crucial to the story, but there’s really funny improv between the two of them where you feel like a fly on the way just watching a teenage daughter and her dad.
I also found it really interesting how you depicted Sam’s extra burden as a woman, from navigating the tension between the two men to even having her period while hiking. Can you talk about why you were interested in this depiction and struggle?
I was thinking about weight — the physical weight you carry on a trip like that and the emotional weight that accumulates for her to carry as these men reveal more of themselves to her. It’s not her job to carry that weight, but she ends up doing it. That felt like something specific, at least to my experience of being a young girl and how you just accept that it’s the way it is. I think it’s only with a lot of distance, maturity, and therapy that one can see it in a new light.
I thought it was interesting, too, in contrast to Matt and Chris, who are saying things like “I felt her labor pains” or “the final stage of maturity is having a family,” when Sam is here, having so clearly had to be wise beyond her years. How was it writing these two characters?
I loved writing them. I really love both of those characters and despite how annoying they get, I love them and their voices. I love how the actors brought out the humor I was aiming for. I remember talking to James on the phone and him saying, “It’s going to be funny, it’s going to be funny,” and I was like, thank you, it’s a nice reminder. Because that’s definitely a part of the tone and then the tone shift I was going for. I spent a lot of time thinking about these guys before writing the characters, and I think my knowledge of them just helped me let them talk to one another, and feelings naturally come out when you know your characters really well.
I’ve read that you hope this film reaches teenagers. Could you elaborate on why you think it’s important to have films like this that speak directly to the teenage experience, specifically the teenage girl experience?
Because I’m telling the story with much distance from that time in my life, I can, on a personal and creative level, still hope that I can access that feeling effectively enough that it resonates with someone who is in it themselves. I think that time in one’s life — at least for me — is when the movies I saw at that age and stuck with me are some of the most important films throughout my life. It’s a really formative time to discover things, and I think it would be an honor to have their attention. Teenagers are so smart and so in touch with their tastes and instincts.
“Good One” opens in New York and Los Angeles this weekend via Metrograph Pictures.