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Why ‘Good One’ Is One of 2024’s Most Affecting Coming-of-Age Films

On a three-day Catskills hike, Good One finds a coming-of-age story in a teenager’s changing view of the adults she has tried to understand.
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India Donaldson’s Good One makes a strong case for being one of 2024’s most affecting coming-of-age films: over a three-day hike, 17-year-old Sam learns that understanding the adults around her does not mean she has to absorb their conflicts or excuse their behavior. The change is quiet, but it reshapes how she sees her father, his friend, and her own place among them.

What is Good One about?

Written and directed by India Donaldson, Good One is a 2024 US feature and her debut. Lily Collias plays Sam, a 17-year-old who joins her father, Chris (James Le Gros), and his longtime friend Matt (Danny McCarthy, on a three-day backpacking trip in the Catskills. When Matt’s son drops out, Sam is the only young person on the trip. The film runs 90 minutes and is in English, according to Conic’s film listing.

The setup sounds modest: a small group walking, camping, and talking. But the men’s bickering and accumulated grievances gradually draw Sam into the role of mediator. An incident changes the emotional meaning of the trip and forces her to reassess the adults she has been trying to understand. Filmbankmedia’s synopsis also identifies the Catskills trip and Sam’s shifting position within the group.

Why it works as a coming-of-age film

Sam is capable before anything changes

Sam is not introduced as a child waiting for someone to teach her how to cope. She is observant, competent, and attentive to the tension between the two men. Her growth is not a sudden transformation from innocence to knowledge; it is a revision of what she believes her attentiveness requires of her.

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Being understanding has a cost

As the trip unfolds, Sam listens and tries to keep the men’s relationship manageable. The film’s central question is not simply whether she can handle an uncomfortable situation. It is whether being perceptive and accommodating obliges her to carry the emotional weight of adults’ choices. The British Film Institute’s interview with Donaldson frames the film around communication and listening, while The Atlantic’s discussion connects its turning point to boundaries and growing up.

A changed understanding, not a tidy lesson

Coming of age here does not mean delivering a decisive speech or resolving every conflict. Donaldson lets pauses, small shifts in behavior, and the strain of sharing a trail carry the change. Sam’s new understanding is substantial, even though it does not produce a clean explanation of the adults or a neatly wrapped-up confrontation. The Atlantic notes that Donaldson did not approach the film as a typical coming-of-age project; that distinction matters. The film can be read through the genre without reducing its subtler focus on trust, disappointment, and the boundaries of emotional labor.

What makes its approach distinctive?

Good One keeps its scale concentrated: a short trip, a few people, and a shift in how one teenager sees the adults around her. Its naturalistic dialogue and silences contrast with coming-of-age stories built around a sequence of overt milestones. Rather than make adolescence a broad life-transition arc, it observes how a family role can shape a young person’s sense of responsibility.

That makes “greatest” a critical judgment, not a measurable ranking. The film’s case rests on how precisely it makes an ordinary outing carry an emotional change, and on its refusal to confuse maturity with forgiving, fixing, or fully understanding the adults. Its ambiguity is part of the point: Sam’s perspective changes, but the film does not pretend that one difficult experience can settle every question.

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Festival and release timeline

Good One premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and screened in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Metrograph Pictures announced its North American rights acquisition on 13 February 2024 and described a planned national theatrical release for summer 2024. RogerEbert.com reported that the film opened theatrically in the United States on 9 August 2024; its interview with Donaldson is dated 6 August 2024. Sundance’s 2024 filmmaker profile places Donaldson and the film in that festival context.

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Where can you watch Good One?

Availability depends on territory and date. Conic’s listing gives a release date of 16 May 2025 and includes a “Watch at home” option, but the page excerpt does not establish the territory for that date or name a consumer streaming service. Filmbankmedia lists digital screenings, which likewise does not confirm that a particular platform carries the film for home viewing in every country. Check the linked listings for current options in your region; these sources do not establish a physical home-video edition.

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