In Good Fortune, Aziz Ansari returns to the scene after a way-too-long hiatus and gives us a thoroughly enjoyable drama-comedy about a frontline worker, a tech bro, and a low-rent guardian angel who looks a lot like Keanu Reeves.
Reeves plays Gabriel, an angel with small wings who, despite being tasked with saving people from texting-while-driving accidents, decides to intervene to help show Arj (Ansari) that life is worth it despite him being fired from his job, having no money, and no real future to look forward to. He does this by having Arj swap lives with super rich Jeff (Seth Rogen). Things do not go as planned.
A sweet, heartfelt movie that is constantly amusing, freshly distinct, and highly critical of how low-wage workers must fight desperately to make ends meet, Good Fortune is one of the more entertaining movies of 2025–even if it does so in a nondescript way.
Funny but not laugh-out-loud funny, moving but not in a highly dramatic way, Good Fortune works by its own rules. The screenplay is great, the performances strong, and the cast’s chemistry is through the roof—a recipe for success.
Good Fortune sags a little in the third act as Ansari, who also wrote and directed, takes the audience on a few side-adventures that feel added just to ensure the movie runs more than 90 minutes, but its flaws are minimal. Ansari takes his three main characters in interesting directions, with Reeves especially amusing as he is forced to experience human pleasures (and sufferings) such as drinking a milkshake or eating a “chicken nuggie.”
Good Fortune is the kind of movie that is easy to overlook—it isn’t a must-see or a visually explosive epic. And yet it’s one of the better movies of 2025, a clever piece of work that is truly, utterly, undeniably enjoyable.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.
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