This post contains spoilers.
I went into this film knowing almost nothing, except for that it had a polarizing effect on viewers. It seemed to be either loved or hated, and it was also clear that it took a definite anti-AI, anti-technology stance. My biggest concern when I decided to watch Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die was that I, as a member of a younger generation, was about to sit down and watch two hours and fifteen minutes of a sixty-one-year-old director (Gore Verbinski) taking this opportunity to tell the audience everything that he felt was wrong with the younger generations and their use of technology. This was fortunately not the case.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hot button issue. Everyday hundreds of new arguments are formed about whether AI is a benefit or a detriment. Which is to say, that Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is not the first form of media to oppose its use, nor will it be the last. It combines a wide scale of genres and classic tropes to bring to light a new tale of dangers posed by this technology. The crux of this film is that AI isn’t real. It can offer you short term gratification or, in this story, grant you your deepest wants, but at the end of the day it is all just a machine. It cannot truly understand human desires or emotions.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die operates on the premise that a man from the future (Sam Rockwell) has traveled back in time to pull together a ragtag group of individuals that will help him save the world from the impending misery that AI is about to bring upon mankind. As he appears in a random diner in LA, he claims with crazed conviction that there is the perfect combination of people in the building who will manage to help him pull off this impossible mission. In a Groundhog Day-esque manner he has restarted this night again, determined to get it right. As the journey begins (for the 117th time), we learn more about the eclectic people chosen for the time traveler’s next attempt at heroism. Each of them has a story that drives them to participate in this crusade.
This film manages something incredibly unique. Usually, heavy handedness is not a quality that many find beneficial to a story like this, but somehow Verbinski has found a way to make it work in his favor. Teenagers find themselves literally zombified and mind controlled by their phones, and the social commentary on the epidemic of school shootings could easily be seen as brash. What might normally make someone my age roll their eyes is utilized in such a surreal fashion that it no longer reads as chastisement of young people.
There is an emphasis placed on the growing apathy within our culture. The heavy handedness morphs intstead into over-the-top comedy that works well the absurdist style of the film. While I very much expected to see a plot about kids addicted to their phones, my expectations were pleasantly subverted. It’s not just the kids who aren’t alright. Adults get lost in fantasy realms. Parents grow apathetic to gun violence. When Susan’s (Juno Temple) son dies in a school shooting, the other moms leave her floundering when they casually ask if it’s her first time. Then ensues a ridiculous storyline in which Susan discovers she can pay to have her son cloned, and that the government will subsidize a large portion of the cost instead of taking legal action to end the horrors happening in schools nationwide. This is where the film’s stance is made abundantly clear: AI and its negative societal effects impact all of us. As technology takes away our ability and willingness to live in the moment, it is also slowly chipping away at humanity.
However, even though I fell on the side of people who loved the film, it did have room for improvement. A couple of times in the film, characters say the words “good luck, have fun, don’t die”, and none of these moments are particularly strong. It feels as though the film really wants the title to work, but it is shoved in at ineffective or inopportune moments. It’s more of a throwaway line than a movie title, and its addition to the dialogue was clunky and unnecessary. Some plot elements don’t make very much sense or don’t seem strongly connected to the story, and at times make the film drag. These moments easily get swept under the rug with the grandiosity of the absurdist elements of the film but are certainly still there if you look hard enough.
As a whole product, I really enjoyed this film. It provided topical commentary on a current issue while making the whole matter comedic. It firmly showed where the filmmakers stand on the subject, but likely would have been enjoyable, even if you are not as opposed to AI as the team behind the film. For people who enjoy truly wacky and bizarre dark comedies, this is sure to be a hit.
