Aziz Ansari writes and directs Good Fortune (now streaming on Starz), one of the rare comedies released theatrically in 2025. Not that it’s a typical comedy, though – it’s a high-concept tale of angels meddling in human lives, with Keanu Reeves playing a celestial being who’s well-meaning but a couple bananas shy of a bunch. So far, so good? Sure! The project emerged from the ashes of Ansari’s abandoned comedy Being Mortal, which ceased shooting when star Bill Murray was accused of sexual misconduct on the set; Ansari ported Kiki Palmer and Seth Rogen over from that film to join him on screen for Good Fortune, and the result is a bit of a mixed bag that struggled to find an audience in theaters, but reportedly did well in the on-demand sphere, and is likely to play nicely for streaming viewers – especially those who appreciate a little social commentary mixed into their funny stuff.
The Gist: Size counts if you’re an angel. Gabriel’s (Reeves) are small, signifying his status in the angel pecking order: low rung. His main gig as an invisible watchdog assigned to help mortal humans? Nudging people while they’re texting and driving, just before they crash. Must keep him really really busy. Apparently, angels can see what’s going to happen before it happens, so one can’t help but wonder why they can’t run a message up the flagpole to the Big Guy Up There and ask him to stop making people run into telephone poles and such. But two-way communication doesn’t seem to be a thing in the heavenly managerial hierarchy. Gabe can consult with his boss Martha (Sandra Oh), but beyond that? Must be a dictator CEO in the clouds shouting commands or something.
Anyway, Gabe sits invisible in Arj’s (Ansari) backseat, looking over his shoulder. “I’m ready to give up on my life anyway,” Arj texts to a friend. Red flag. This might be above Gabe’s pay grade, but he commits to keeping an eye on the guy. Arj appears to have hit rock bottom: He’s an editor of documentary films that can’t get a job editing documentary films. He lives in his car. He works at a crappy corporate big box hardware store and picks up side gigs delivering food or via Task Sergeant, an app that connects him with odd jobs. At one of those odd jobs, a kid asks Arj why he wanted to grow up to do someone else’s laundry, and the review Arj gets on the app reads, “Said dark things to my child.” It seems Arj believes the American Dream is dead. Kaput. Tits up and rotting. He pulls over to sleep and gets parking tickets or asked by cops to move along. He dozes off in a Denny’s and gets kicked out. He stands in line for two hours for fancy cinnamon buns for a customer and when they’re sold out he doesn’t get paid. Six feet under. Pushing up daisies. Taking a long dirt nap.
Things are looking up for Arj for a minute, though. He meets hardware coworker Elena (Palmer), and they hit it off over some cheap tacos. She wants to unionize the store employees. Then rich tech guy Jeff (Rogen) hires Arj as a personal assistant. Jeff does nothing and whatever for a living, has a massive glass-walled house up in the hills and takes vacations all the time. He pays enough for Arj to sleep in a scungy motel. But then Arj effs up. He uses Jeff’s credit card to pay for a dinner out with Elena, and gets fired. About now is when Gabe decides that Arj’s soul needs to be saved, so he steps outside his professional jurisdiction and switches Arj and Jeff’s lives. Arj is rich and taking vacations and Jeff is poor and hustling cinnamon buns for measly tips. The Rules From On High state that the switch can’t be reversed without consent, but Gabe isn’t worried about that. Gabe believes Arj will learn some lessons, miss his old life and ask for it back. Gabe is confident his play will work. Gabe might be more than just a couple bananas short.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? You can sorta lump Good Fortune in with other high-concept, quasi-existential comedies of 2025, like The Life of Chuck or Eternity (but gratefully, Ansari avoids that level of schmaltz, mostly). So cross that aesthetic with Dogma and you’re in the ballpark here.
Performance Worth Watching: Is it remarkable that Reeves draws the biggest laughs in a movie co-starring Rogen, Ansari and Palmer? Ten years ago, yes. But today? Not really. The scene in which Gabe reaches a crystalline level of self-awareness is hilarious and a little bit heartbreaking, and Reeves plays it perfectly.
Sex And Skin: None. Angels are always watching.
Our Take: Ansari colors the story of a man rendered homeless and suicidal by the gig economy with a walk-a-mile-in-the-other-guy’s-shoes quasi-allegory, and the result is shaggy, smart and hit-and-miss with the comedy, but mostly enjoyable. While Ansari and Rogen essentially play to type, Palmer and Reeves deliver charming performances at the periphery of the on-the-nose machinations of the Anj/Jeff switcheroo plot, Palmer carrying the film’s earnest heart and Reeves playing a dingdong who believes that granting Anj fabulous wealth won’t make him feel like all his problems are solved. Whatta maroon!
A life of leisure with very few pragmatic concerns is something most people yearn for, and Gabe apocalyptically fumbles the ball when he shows Anj his future, living with his in-laws and working a miserable package-delivery job that forces you to pee in a bottle to meet deadlines. (It’s not such a wonderful life, you see.) He’s a bit naive, Gabe is, and he functions as a stand-in for idealism, a seed that finds no purchase when dropped on the impenetrable concrete of reality. Good Fortune mucks about in philosophical waters at the same time it tries to deliver offbeat comedy, and while the writing and execution can be a little sloppy, it pays off in bemused chuckles and medium-grade food for thought.
Ansari flirts with satire when he maybe should go all the way with it, but one senses the quandary he was in when faced with the sincerity afforded to the project by Reeves and Palmer. As Gabe is stripped of his wings and rendered merely human (watching him eat human food for the first time is riotous, Reeves playing the scene with exquisite comic timing), and Elena swims against the current trying to make things better for herself and others, the film compromises its harder, more critical edge and, in its final moments, rushes headlong into the Schmaltz Zone. But by then, Ansari has mostly won us over by making obvious, but earnest points about the growing wealth gap, and making us laugh at the same time.
Our Call: Good Fortune ain’t half bad. STREAM IT.
John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.
