Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

Good Luck Have Fun Don’t Die

This film is a balls to the wall wild ride that is one of Gore Verbinski’s best films of his entire filmography! Now this film very much in the vein of Terry Gillian’s obscure vision that is so striking but it never feels like they’re borrowing his style if anything it feels like an homage to his brand. It has so much to say it is a comedy wrapped in a dystopian nightmare that many will compare to the show Black Mirror. Sam Rockwell and the entire cast is fantastic and it has its finger on the current pulse of what is going on at the moment in terms of technological advances and what can can be a slippery slope to hell in so many ways if not careful with it. Some will call the film far fetched but it is cautioning people to invest themselves into people and not into tech as heavily and it is such a fun time that drives home a very serious message. 

Firstly, Gore Verbinski has crafted one of the best middle finger films to AI I have ever seen! Now I love the style and vision of Gore Verbinski I think he is one of the most interesting stylistic voices from the 2000’s that went heavily under appreciated if it was from The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy that quite literally breathed life back into the pirate genre after decades of it being. Dead. His amazingly well animated film Rango and now this he has always had a fun sense of adventure to his films that is impossible to not have fun with when watching his films. This though I feel is his most imaginative film in terms of style due to how bonkers the film is and it takes big influence from the filmmaking vein of Terry Gillian. The film tackles very important themes about the dangers of technology and the use of artificial intelligence and I can compare this film to Civil War the 2024 Alex Garland film as many at the time called that film politically ridiculous and now it is more relevant. Then ever. I Think the way this film ages will be done very well due to how relevant the subject matter is and also just in the way it is executed is so striking within it’s imagery the film holds nothing back it talks about how out of touch many of us have become with human connection and will replace deep rooted relationships for false realities. It discusses the dangers of tech, school shootings and AI topics most filmmakers would not dare touch these topics for how they can be controversial for audiences to digest but as I have been saying this film is hilarious, weird, and grim but necessary. Gore does not want to sugar coat these conversation topics he wants to tell it for how it is and bringing this brutal truth. The way that Gore goes about telling this story and the creatives behind it did a tremendous job that makes this one of the most bizarrely striking films of the year with one of the most brutally honest stories. 

Secondly, The performances from the whole cast is great but the two performances that stood out to me was Sam Rockwell and Hailey Lu Richardson and Hailey Lu Richardson was a star that was trying to breakout right before the pandemic and sadly never got her due in the spotlight. She did a small romance/ drama called Five feet apart which I think is such a cute yet devastating film more people need to watch. I am glad she is still getting opportunities to be able to get her name out their in films like this she plays this emotionally hurt character that has been affected by the effects of Tech in her personal life and she has a very complicated personality that Is hard to pin her motives down but Hailey Lu does an amazing job at brining such an emotional sincerity to the character that has you drawn into her role in each scene she is in. Then you have Sam Rockwell who is and I stand on this the most underrated actor of his generation he gives a wild performance in this film and the first scene he plays in was so reminiscent of Network’s Howard Beale’s genius speech on people waking up from the television set and here Sam Rockwell gives what feels like a 8 minute monologue on the madness of how people just don’t care about human connection and if we don’t do anything about the dangers of it that we are all doomed and people are looking at him like he is certifiably insane. Sam Rockwell delivers one of his career defining moments in that scene he plays this comedic but tragic character that has so much depth and he is brilliant in this film giving another sensational turn here. Overall everyone in the cast is splendid but it is the work of Sam Rockwell and Hailey Lu Richardson that blew me away. 

Lastly, Good Luck Have Fun Don’t Die is one of the best films of the year that I can see myself putting on my top 10 of the year later on this year when it comes to discussing films that stayed with me. Gore and the creatives involved delivers a needed reminder to invest into people and not tech as human connection is where the soul and heart lies led by a spectacular leading performance by Sam Rockwell with a great cast surrounding him this is one of the most wild films of the year that will leave you gobsmacked. I recommended people to see this on the big screen the way it is meant to be seen if you’re a fan of supporting small original films please see this in a theatre. 

This Film centres on a man that is sent from the future to warn people of the developing of AI before it destroys the soul of humanity before it is too late

Rated R : for pervasive language, violence, some grisly images and brief sexual content.

Sam Rockwell : Rockwell is one of the best actors of his generations and no I will not shut up about it because I am so tired of him being overlooked as he is a tremendous talent and here he proves why that is so! Here he plays this really eccentric but tragic person that is haunted by the things he has seen of the future and wants to warn humanity to listen up before it is too late to save the human race from becoming brain numbed technology driven people that are destroyed by the thing they helped advance. The opening scene he is in for his character is again I cannot stress one of the best monologues he has ever given in his entire career. You can see all the shades of his character within that one scene alone from the charm, swagger, desperation and grim nature of why he is their with a sprinkle of humour he goes through each side of his characters complex brain within those few minutes so we know completely of who he is. He walks into the scene like a cannonball of charisma and he locks you into who he is within the second he enters the frame as Sam Rockwell has this ability to draw you into his characters due to his amazing ability to grab your attention and here he does so once again with this cover the top petrified person that knows if he can’t get through to even a few people with this story that humanity could collapse. Sam channels this character that knows the dangers of what tech can do and how they ruin lives if not having the proper safe guards on them and he has this over the top way of delivering his dialogue that just works perfectly for the character due to his ability to always be high energy. He also wraps his sadness in humour so people can never really know how hurt he is but the pain is written all over his eyes and the way he delivers a line with such raw emotional depth. He has this Groundhog Day affect happen to him where he has lived this situation many times over and he needs these group of people to be different otherwise he will have to start over again which he does not want to do he wants to be able to get far enough that he has faith in these people he picks to carry the mission all the way. Sam Rockwell has this sad clown affect to him that he wants to hope that their is still good in people but at the same time he also has grown jaded and cynical due to the environment he has been exposed to. Rockwell is able to capture that emotional space that he operates in and he is amazing in it he can give great wit and then hard hitting emotional truth to the people that follow him along this wild journey and Sam keeps proving that he can still carry a film as the lead for a film because he for the longest time was just given supporting characters to play and he knocked each out of the park but I am so happy that studios can see that he is talented enough to be given leading roles. Rockwell gives a sensational Howard Beale like performance of maddening lengths that also have quite it’s fair share of comedy that has you totally hooked the whole way through he Is so captivating and it is a shame that his performance in this will probably go overlooked as it is one of my recent favourites of his he just chews up the scenery so damn well in this role. 

Gore Verbinski : Gore has knocked it out of the park with his take on the dangers of AI with this film! I have been raised on his films from the pirates of the Caribbean trilogy he crafted in the early 2000’s to Rango the underrated animated film that is one of the best of that decade he has such a singular voice that when you see his films you can tell he is having the absolute most amount of fun. Here he paints a frame that if we don’t take the proper precautions to secure a future where AI is used safely it can easily become a descent into basically hell for how humans function in a society going forward. I understand it is scary for people to think and talk about but it is a conversation starter that has to happen because it is a very real issue that needs to be addressed and I love how out front about it he is that he goes as far as he can to tell people that this is a warning that we need to sit up and take notice of and Sure he puts it through the landscape of a film and with over the top antics but a lot of what he is showing the audience is not that far away from the truth. Sure he makes the film fun with great set pieces and injects it with humour that is primarily dark but still very much there but the takeaway for me on how he set the tone was that of a black mirror episode. He is using the style of Terry Gillian and his own to show this over the top visual style while keeping the message of the film entirely relatable for the viewer he goes as far as discussing school shootings and trauma some of these topics are so current many filmmakers don’t want to talk about it but I applaud filmmakers like Gore and Alex Garland for having the hard discussions with viewers that need to be had to tell people what is happening needs to be spoken about so people can hopefully do something about it or at least watch out for it. Gore still isn’t all gloom and scares he is able to have fun in ways with the material he is making while still towing the line of fun and hard hitting truth and one never compromises the other in style or tone which I deeply appreciated how he executed that. Overall the way he brings the story to life was greatly done and I think it is one of Gore’s best films ever that has one of the most hard hitting themes he has ever touched upon in any of his films getting an original 2026 Gore Verbinski film we should not take for granted.