Is this how other people feel when their favorite films are undervalued? Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is the best time I’ve had in a theater in many, many moons and yet I see from the “2025” official release, I can’t even put it on a best list for 2026. Thankfully, I haven’t made my 2025 list yet, I guess.
This is the sharpest, wittiest, and most insightful 2025 commentary on the world we currently live in almost precisely because it doesn’t seem like it’s trying to be any of these things. No, the film isn’t necessarily political, and doesn’t take shots at Trump -as I would expect most art to do these days- but it does attack AI and not from the usual POV. This film doesn’t comment on the truth of the content; it comes at lifestyle and screen choices, and what is happening to our brains that make us only pay attention to the electronic devices we hold.
It is the near future, and AI is about to take over entirely. A seemingly homeless insane man (Sam Rockwell) enters a crowded diner in a ridiculous dumpster-dive outfit and announces he is from the future; he is looking for recruits; he’s done this (whatever “this” is) unsuccessfully 116 times, and who is going to go with him this time around.
There are no initial takers.
Of course there aren’t. Would you follow a crazy guy in a dumpster outfit just because he told you the world was about to end? No, you wouldn’t. And you wouldn’t blame anybody else for ignoring him. But he knows things. See, you can’t repeat the same jumping off point 117 times without learning a thing or two about your environment. Eventually, everybody gets past level one, amIright? The man is convinced that the diner is the right play, that among the dozens of people in this environment, there is a combination of six or seven folks that will come with him and will live to the point where they can convince a young AI architect not to let the machines win.
It won’t be easy. The machines know what’s going on. And they can recruit, too. Do you have any idea how much easier it is these days for a machine to convince you than what appears to be a homeless guy?
My favorite movie plots are overarching simple, yet uncommonly complicated underneath. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is the epitome of both. When the future man finally gets his recruits, it seems like a set of average nobodies. What makes this combination so poignant? Well, there’s the mother (Juno Temple) who lost a son in a school shooting. This, by itself, opened an entirely new wave of black comedy I wish every American had to watch for 
credit. You won’t believe where this plot goes, nor how blasé her peers are about losing children. Then there are the schoolteachers (Zazie Beetz and Michael Peña -in what I think is his best role) who are also numb to the machinations of screen-centered humanity. This matters little until Mark (Peña) accidentally infringes upon it, creating a wave of teenage zombies. Angry teenage zombies. And then there’s the “princess,” Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson, who I hope starts getting more meaty roles), a down-on-her-luck Luddite forced into employment as a fairy princess for girl birthday parties precisely because she is allergic to technology. Literally allergic, like owning an iPhone would cause an embolism.
There is a segment of society that is not small and not shrinking for whom this is the most relevant film ever made – those addicted to their phones. “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is -in itself- the evil catchphrase of the overlord tech that rules our attention span and our emotional states. This film is a reminder that everything comes at a cost. Yes, your entertainment, your attention, your desires all come at a cost. The question is not whether you’ll pay it, but whether you already are. The seduction of selfishness, of lust, of grievance is now omnipresent. Will you let it seduce you, or will you say, “Actually, Donald Trump is a terrible man and a worse President.” Without ever saying those words, this tale of future evil couldn’t be clearer about where we are going with our current trainwreck of a society. This is a great film, surprisingly funny, and whereas Wuthering Heights seemed like absolute torture at 136 minutes, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die seems too short at 134.
A future man full of furious spleen
Found a diner on reboot routine
He warned of the harm
And coaxed with his charm
Break attempt number one-hundred seventeen
Rated R, 134 Minutes
Director: Gore Verbinski
Writer: Matthew Robinson
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Me!
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Our AI Overlords
