Good Fortune (2025) Lionsgate/Comedy RT: 97 minutes Rated R (language, some drug use) Director: Aziz Ansari Screenplay: Aziz Ansari Music: Carter Burwell Cinematography: Adam Newport-Berra Release date: October 17, 2025 (US) Cast: Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh, Keanu Reeves, Sherry Cola, Stephen McKinley Henderson.
Rating: ***
Tell me if you’ve heard this one. An angel comes down to earth to help a lost soul. He shows him how his life would be under other circumstances. Lost soul learns to love life and to appreciate what he has. He then goes back to his old life with newfound purpose. Does it sound at all familiar? That’s a rhetorical question. Some of us watch it every Christmas. I don’t. I can’t stand that movie and it looks like I’m not alone in my dislike.
Actor-comedian Aziz Ansari, writing and directing his first feature film, takes Good Fortune in a different direction. It starts with lost soul Arj (Ansari) despairing of his life. The guy can’t catch a break. A wannabe documentary filmmaker, he barely makes ends meet by doing odd jobs for people via some phone app and working part time at a big hardware store. He lives in his car and showers at a local gym. He then meets super-wealthy tech investor Jeff (Rogen, The Studio) and convinces him to hire him as his assistant. The gig doesn’t last long. Jeff fires him and it’s back to square one.
All seems lost when Arj’s car is towed from a Denny’s parking lot. Now he really is homeless. That’s when the angel Gabriel (Reeves, John Wick) appears to him. Gabriel is a lower-level angel meaning it’s not his job to guide souls. His job is to stop people from texting and driving. He wants to do more and sees an opportunity to prove his true worth to his supervisor Martha (Oh, Killing Eve). He arranges for Arj and Jeff to trade places for a few days in order for Arj to learn that success and wealth won’t solve his problems. But it does. And guess what? When it’s time to switch back, Arj refuses. He wants to keep living Jeff’s life. Oops.
As a result, Gabriel loses his wings and is forced to live as a human. If he can convince Arj to change back, maybe he’ll get his wings back. So it is that Gabriel takes up with Jeff, now living Arj’s life and not loving it. Meanwhile, Arj is having a blast living the high life. He becomes romantically involved with Elena (Palmer, One of Them Days), a former colleague at the hardware store trying to convince her co-workers to unionize. She doesn’t remember the old Arj and comes to not like the new Arj.
Keanu really makes Good Fortune. It’s his movie and everybody knows it. He brings his laid-back SoCal attitude to Gabriel, saying yes to everything Ansari’s screenplay throws at him. It’s delightful to watch Gabriel experience things he never has before like eating (especially tacos), salsa dancing and smoking cigarettes. Even at his lowest, washing dishes at some greasy little eatery, he brings good vibes. It’s a joy watching Keanu do Keanu.
The rest of the cast does a fine job too. Ansari nails it as the guy who learns that money really can buy happiness (if not love). It’s not the intended lesson, but it’s the one that works best for him. It’s fun to watch the measures he’ll resort to in order to keep his new life, one that isn’t rightfully his. Rogen is also good as the tech bro who can’t conceive of a life without any of the amenities. He’s at a loss when he finds himself on the streets trying to eke out a living in an uncaring society. And with an ex-angel no less. Palmer, all street smarts and sass, is always fun. Her socially conscious Elena is a perfect match for both versions of Arj, the nice passive one and the other guy. Oh, whose role isn’t huge, brings it as the head angel, a boss the likes of which many of us have known.
These days, too many comedies aim low, choosing to be unnecessarily gross, vulgar and mean-spirited. Ironically, a few have featured Rogen in the cast. He makes up for it by being part of Good Fortune, a surprisingly kind-hearted comedy that doesn’t reek of desperation. Some comedies feel like they’re forcing you to laugh, that there’s something wrong with you if you don’t find it funny. Good Fortune is effortless in getting viewers to laugh. It’s not riotously funny. It’s gentler in its humor and even a little bit insightful in its examination of gig economics and the dehumanization of the work force. One of Jeff’s companies is the outfit that’s replacing food delivery people with robots thus robbing already struggling people of income. It’s doesn’t go as deep as one would like, but at least it doesn’t pretend the situation doesn’t exist.
I really like Good Fortune. It’s a good-natured piece. It’s also a bit twisted, but not in a way that will alienate mainstream audiences. Ansari takes the whole divine intervention thing and turns it on his head. The notion of an angel failing in a mission that was never his to begin with is a fun idea. I like that Ansari never tries to go big with any of it. It’s just a cute, slightly warped little movie. It’s easy on the senses. You can’t ask for much more than that.
