Early last year, we saw photos of Keanu Reeves on set with Seth Rogen for Aziz Ansari’s new film, which is now called Good Fortune. The teaser dropped yesterday, the film stars Keanu as a guardian angel seeking more responsibility and so he sets out to save a lost soul, which is Ansari’s character.
Keanu is an underrated comedic performer, and the teaser is charming as hell.
The film is written and directed by Ansari, and it stars him, Keanu, Seth Rogen, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh, and Sherry Cola. That is an enormously likeable ensemble, which makes a kind of sense given this is the most visible Ansari has been since the 2018 sexual misconduct allegations made against him during the height of #MeToo. His was always a nuanced case—a bad date nightmare of consent issues—and his career never really slowed down so much as he changed gears. He shifted his stand-up performances from arenas to clubs and theaters, though that did not stop him from being one of the highest paid stand-ups of the last seven years (he was nominated for a Grammy in 2020 for Best Comedy Album).
But his career since 2018 has largely been focused on standup, with the exception of his much-admired show, Master of None, which ended in 2021. Now, he’s coming back to film/TV with his first feature film as a writer/director, and returning as a star, too. The super likeable ensemble around him feels like shoring up his support as he returns to mainstream entertainment in a big way, in a highly visible project with one of the Last Movie Stars, never mind the perennially popular Rogen, Palmer, and Oh. It guarantees we’ll pay attention to the project and given the overwhelming affection the public has for his castmates, it pretty well guarantees anyone who might have qualms about supporting him—hi, it’s me—will get over it for Keanu’s sake.
It's going to work. The teaser awkwardly edited—the ending is very abrupt—but I’m on board with charming angel Keanu, who I think is an underrated comedic performer and should get to do more comedy anyway. They also need to stack the deck because Good Fortune is intended to be an R-rated studio comedy, in a time when those are almost extinct. Oddly enough, though, October 2025 will bring us two: Good Fortune and opening just one week before it, Animal Friends starring Ryan Reynolds, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Momoa, and Vince Vaughn. I wish these films had more runway between them. I can’t help but feel they’re going to cannibalize the same audience. We shouldn’t set up our few remaining R-rated comedies to fail!
Here's Keanu at the Indy 500 last weekend.
