Good Grief (2024)

Streaming on Netflix Now

★★1/2

Where is the Dan Levy I know from Schitt’s Creek?! Because based on this movie, which he wrote, directed, and starred in, I see a completely different storyteller. And not really for the better. Good Grief is an overwritten, yet authentic debut film that tries so hard to say something, to make you feel something, that it ends up doing neither. Instead, it felt very surface level, as in it told us what the characters were feeling rather than showing us, making it nearly impossible to emotionally connect to the material. I love Dan Levy and what he did with Schitt’s Creek… but this just felt like it was a vanity project for him. I felt like he took on more than he could chew here, and his inexperience won out. You can tell he is trying too hard to make it all work, but unfortunately, the film is just missing something. The gaping hole sitting at the heart of Dan Levy's directorial debut film is hard to pinpoint exactly, but if I had to put a finger near that button, I'd say that for a film about grief, even with "grief" in its title, the film talks about grief - the idea of it and the emotions surrounding it - much more so than letting us in and feel said [titular] grief. Once again, I never really “felt” anything. Levy and his wonderful cast, his sharp, smart writing, and the warm interior designs and artwork featured make this more than amenable as a sorta bougie, sorta indie Netflix exercise, but the film can't seem to wear its heart on its sleeve like it desperately wants to and therefore keeps us at arm's length the entire time. It pains me that this film is somewhat hollow because I love Dan Levy and he deserves all the success life, the universe, and everything can give him, but this film is unfortunately a bit of a stagnant step forward in hopefully what will be a successful directorial career for him.

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Premise: When his husband unexpectedly dies, Marc's world shatters, sending him and his two best friends on a soul-searching trip to Paris that reveals some hard truths they each needed to face.

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Netflix

Written & Directed by Dan Levy

Cast: Dan Levy, Ruth Negga, Himesh Patel, Luke Evans, Celia Imrie, David Bradley, Arnaud Valois

Runtime: 1hr 40min

Rating: 14A

Comedy, Drama, Romance

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IMDb Rating: 6.4/10

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%

RT Audience Score: 72%

RT Critic Average: 5.9/10

RT Audience Average: 3.8/5

Metacritic Score: 60

Letterboxd: 3.0/5

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Fun Fact: Dan Levy's directorial debut of a feature film.

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