Directed by Gore Verbinski, written by Matthew Robinson, starring Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz & Asmin Chaudry

According to “those who were there” during the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Gore Verbinski at one point admonished everyone to cherish the experience “because they won’t let us make movies like this anymore.” His words largely proved true, as the era of mega-budget blockbusters, filmed on location with massive sets, intricate costumes, props and casts of thousands is a thing of the past (Christopher Nolan notwithstanding). Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die suggests the filmmaker has a serious axe to grind against the loss of handcraft in filmmaking, and as a particularly venomous screed against the advent of so-called artificial intelligence. The film is a sermon – but an entertaining one.

A man strides into a late-night diner, announces that he has come from the future to save humanity and that he must recruit a specific combination of those currently in the diner to complete his mission.The problem is that he doesn’t know which specific people he needs – he has attempted this one hundred and sixteen times already to no success. It’s a devilishly enjoyable spin on the “Groundhog Day” conceit: the audience experiences interacting with a man who has lived the same day over and over, and have to work out whether he is simply a crazy homeless guy, or if his impressive knowledge of everyone is convincing.
Sci-fi, fantastical premises like this are a dime a dozen, however, and not worth much in any story without a character performance at the centre. Most fortunate then that Sam Rockwell sells the hell out of this role. The whole film, in fact, rises and falls on his performance, and he never fails to be the perfect alchemical mixture of hilarious, sarcastic, manic, obsessive and tortured. The ensemble that surrounds him “this time round” includes troubled couple Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz, a seemingly broken Juno Temple, incredulous Asim Chaudry and a surly Haley Lu Richardson, who stands out as the cast MVP after Rockwell.

The trailer presents the film as being “from a completely unhinged Gore Verbinski” and this claim is a little bit of a stretch. That promise suggests the arthouse like, independent nature of a Jodorowsky film, but it is still very much a film made on the rails of Hollywood storytelling. The bonkers elements in the film’s climax are admittedly bizarre, but have a strong story justification. To speak much about the plot gives away much of what is enjoyable about experiencing the film – suffice to say as the ensemble reveal their own personal stories (largely in flashback sequences) the film has a few things to say about phones, social media, cloning, mental health, gaming and their impact on relationships. Not all of these points land, and the push to include so many ideas in the film can makes the conflict and stakes a little confusing. Verbinski and his team are at pains to point at the spectres of Silicon Valley and say “this is bad!”, but don’t necessarily tie it all together come the end.

The destination, however, is not the point – it is the journey of the film, which is clever, funny, tense and most importantly human enough to sustain two hours and change. It’s too esoteric to enter into The Canon as a classic, and too broad to find a cult following, but it is fun.