October Movies Part 3: Good Fortune & Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

Do you want to go out for a light comedy? Or wallow in an intense drama? The world is your oyster!

Good Fortune: Written and directed by Aziz Ansari, who also stars, this is a story about Arj (Ansari), a struggling down-on-his-luck documentary filmmaker in Los Angeles who is relying on the gig economy to stay afloat. He is living out of his car and driving around LA to make food deliveries and run errands for anyone who will pay him, and one day he crosses paths with Jeff (Seth Rogen), a super-rich tech investor who lives in a swanky mansion in the hills and appears to be living his best life. Oh and also, Arj has a guardian angel, Gabriel (Keanu Reeves, in an excellent piece of casting). 

Now, Gabriel has a very specific remit as a guardian angel - he is in charge of preventing accidents from texting and driving. That's it, he's not meant to get more involved than that. But, when he sees how Arj is struggling, and begins to worry that he might be a suicidal "lost soul," he decides to take matters into his own hands. Which leads to Arj swapping lives with Jeff, which doesn't quite have the restorative, life-affirming effect that Gabriel was expecting.

If you've seen the trailer for this movie, you've pretty much experienced the entire film. The movie is still charming AF though, and Ansari, Rogen, and Reeves are an excellent trio, playing off of each other in funny and unexpected ways. The always charismatic Keke Palmer also puts in an appearance as Elena, a co-worker and love interest of Arj's who is the voice of reason as he seeks to live out his bougiest fantasies. The movie does end with a bit of a whimper, and Ansari can't quite write himself out of the predicament his script has placed him in a way that feels particularly honest. Nonetheless, it's a diverting and sweet movie about why we all need to be socialists. Eat the rich!

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere: Written and directed by Scott Cooper, based off the book by Warren Zanes, this is the story of Bruce Springsteen (played with customary angst and stoicism by Jeremy Allen White) during the creation of his 1982 album, Nebraska. Springsteen is just coming off a highly successful concert tour, and he has rented a home back in New Jersey to slow down and take stock of what he wants to do next professionally. His manager, Jon Landau (played by the equally stoic Jeremy Strong), is looking out for him, but is also keen to discuss his next album. He's excited when Bruce starts preparing a demo in his house, unaccompanied and using a four-track recorder. But that demo contains a dramatic shift in Springsteen's usual rock n' roll, and what follows is a challenging process of deciding how to record this album and market it to the executives who are not going to be happy about this change in musical style.

Personally, Springsteen is going through a deep depression, reflecting on his childhood, his abusive father (played with complicated menace by Stephen Graham), and his blue-collar roots, all of which influence the deeply dark and personal songs on this new album. He meets a new woman named Faye (Odessa Young, in a somewhat thankless role as an amalgamation of all the women Bruce dated during this period in his life when he was a lost soul), and while like all tortured artists he tries to distract himself with their relationship, he finds that he simply cannot outrun his demons.

This movie is a bit of a slog. If you love Bruce's music, and particularly this album, it might be a real treat, but as someone who barely knows any Springsteen music, and certainly nothing from this album, the entire film just feels like a very somber treatise on depression and the artistic process. It's perhaps telling that the only time I got excited is when we see him record Born in the USA halfway through the film, before things settle back into melancholy. There isn't much plot here, and while White and Strong are delivering great performances and showcase a beautiful friendship between these two men, it felt like this movie was stuck in one gear throughout and grinded through. There's a scene at the very end when Bruce's mask finally breaks, and that was probably the most powerful moment of the film for me, but at that point I had already sat through two hours of rather humdrum storytelling. Ultimately, this movie might be worth it if you're a fan of the Boss, but otherwise, this is not going to be worth your while.