I got chills. Sincerely. Seeing Keanu Reeves’ angel wings and stoic visage at the very start of Good Fortune gave me a very specific kind of happiness. The kind of happiness that only happens when you know you’re about to watch a good movie; not a film per se, but simply some moving images that were intended to entertain me, this time joyfully pieced together by writer-director and star Aziz Ansari. And I mean it when I say “me”. Don’t get me wrong, this is a comedy for all to enjoy. What I mean is, its specificity, to me and many of you out there, is due to Ansari’s lifetime ingestion of pop culture, culminating in an original story held together by a hodge podge of winks and memories shared by his contemporaries. Like a lot of you (and I mean a lot), I have been watching Keanu Reeves for just about my entire movie-watching existence. When he really started to hit the big time with Point Break (1991), he was that guy from Youngblood (1986). And though wholesome by today’s standards, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) and the sequel Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991), made for a new air-headed sincerity that was so likeable and specific to him and that time. Reeves (and Alex Winter of course) was and is the exemplary, baffled, teenage, living-in-the-moment truth-teller. Reeves has never been considered to be a great actor, but listen to me when I say, he’s a great actor. I love him and trust him as do many of you out there, which is why Ansari did us proud by casting him. Ansari also feels for Trading Places (1983), which was exactly the type of high-concept comedy (and clearly an inspiration for Good Fortune) inappropriately played at kids’ birthday parties in the 80s. Yes Jamie Lee Curtis plays a good-hearted prostitute, but we, and many of our parents, were fine not paying close attention to these types of details, not if they got in the way of watching Eddie Murphy. It’s message about substance versus greed is a good one, and without giving away too much, Good Fortune continues this truism while yanking at our collective nostalgia, being that it’s also a send up of It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), an indisputably brilliant film that is respectfully and viciously mocked. Main character and gig-worker Arj (Anzari) is all of us who have ever kept scraping up and sliding down that steep financial mountain only to see the wealthy saunter up and up without a care. He’s frustrated and for good reason, and as it happens, professionally unsatisfied guardian angel (Reeves) has been taking notice and does what he thinks is right and gives him his venture capitalist ex-boss Jeff’s (Seth Rohan) life and riches. Trouble is, there’s no enlightened to be had and the impossibly beautiful view from from Jeff’s California abode proves to be enough for Arj to shake off all attachment to his authentic life. Deadpan senior angel Martha (Sandra Oh) brings the film’s self-awareness and points to its points with her sarcastic flair, while love interest Elena (Keke Palmer) is girl-next-door luminosity. Some will deem this to be a thankless “girlfriend” part. Not true. And Rogan, frankly, and in the best way, knows this role like the back of his hand, sending himself up as a fish out of water Richie Rich type. But it’s Reeves who is the brightest light. His comedic timing is adorable and the glue holding everything together. Who doesn’t want to spend time with this guy. Now I know that Ansari made a movie for himself and not specifically for me. But it feels like it was. Which is fortunate for all of us.

Utah, get me two!