Jon S. Baird Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Everything’s Going to Be Great,’ starring Allison Janney, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Bryan Cranston, Jack Champion and Chris Cooper

July 12, 2025

by Carla Hay

Bryan Cranston and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth in “Everything’s Going to Be Great” (Photo by Peter H. Stranks/Lionsgate)

Directed by Jon S. Baird

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1989 to 1990, in Ohio, New Jersey, and Kansas, the comedy/drama film “Everything’s Going to Be Great” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and on Asian person) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A husband and a wife, who have opposite personalities and work as managers of regional performing arts theaters, juggle conflicts in their marriage and conflicts between their two teenage sons, who also have opposite personalities.

Culture Audience: “Everything’s Going to Be Great” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of stars Allison Janney and Bryan Cranston and sometimes-quirky stories about people who love musical theater.

Chris Cooper and Allison Janney in “Everything’s Going to Be Great” (Photo by Peter H. Stranks/Lionsgate)

“Everything’s Going to Be Great” sometimes struggles with balancing comedy and drama in a story about an eccentric family of regional theater managers. However, the principal cast performances enliven an occasionally trite and wandering narrative. The family dynamics in the movie are consistently believable.

Directed by Jon S. Baird and written by Steven Rogers, “Everything’s Going to Be Great” had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. The movie takes place from 1989 to 1990, in Ohio, New Jersey, and Kansas. “Everything’s Going to Be Great” was actually filmed in the Canadian province of Ontario.

In the beginning of “Everything’s Going to Be Great,” it’s the spring of 1989 in Akron, Ohio. Buddy Smart (played by Bryan Cranston) is in a middle-school principal’s office with his 14-year-old son Lester “Les” Smart (played by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and Principal Franklin (played by Cady Huffman) in a meeting to discuss some disciplinary issues about Les at this school. Les is a school misfit who has made some people uncomfortable.

As Principal Franklin explains to Buddy, during a physical education class that was discussing angina during a CPR training session, Les blurted out that “Vaginas make his flesh creep,” says the principal. In Les’ history class, he was assigned a one-page report on the Manifest Destiny. Instead, he turned in a nine-page musical titled “Les Wiz,” set during the French Revolution and inspired by “Les Misérables” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

Buddy scoffs at these complaints and doesn’t think that they’re serious enough for the school principal to have this meeting. “Isn’t nine pages better than one?” Buddy somewhat sarcastically asks Principal Franklin. The principal asks Les to leave the room so that she can talk to Buddy privately.

Principal Franklin tells Buddy that he has to consider the possibility that Les is gay. She says it in a tone as if being gay is something to be ashamed of or is a mental health problem. Buddy says defiantly, “In theater, we don’t care about people’s race or sexuality. [We care] only if they are talented.” Principal Franklin tries to finish the sentence by saying the word “Christian” when Buddy says “talented.”

In the hallway, outside the principal’s office, Les imagines that he sees the late playwright/composer Noël Coward (played by Mark Caven) and is having a conversation with him. Les has these types of short imaginary conversations with different deceased celebrity entertainers throughout the movie, including actress Ruth Gordon (played by Chick Reid), actress Tallulah Bankhead (played by Laura Benanti) and playwright/novelist William Inge (played by David MacLean). It’s a fairly cute gimmick that is sometimes distracting in this movie.

After the meeting with the school principal ends, Les complains to Buddy, “I hate this school. No one gets me.” Buddy tells Les, “You’re a weirdo. It’s not their fault.” Buddy also says that when he was Les’ age, he was an actor too and didn’t fit in at his school either. Buddy assures Les that Les will find “his people” when he goes to high school.

How much of a musical fanatic is Les? During live performances at the theaters that his parents manage, Les frequently walks on stage uninvited and unannounced and joins the cast in performing. An early scene in the movie shows Les doing this type of “stage crashing” during a performance of “Fiddler on the Roof.” These interruptions annoy the cast, crew and Les’ mother, but Buddy is more tolerant because he understands Les’ enthusiasm.

Things in the Smart family household are also fraught with tension because Buddy and his wife Macy Smart (played by Allison Janney) are financially struggling and are having many arguments about it. Although the spouses share a love of musical theater, they have opposite personalities. Buddy is an optimist who believes that their problems will eventually be solved. Macy is a pessimist who has become jaded and bitter that they haven’t been able to achieve their dream of producing Broadway musicals.

Buddy and Macy are also fundamentally different when it comes to religion. Buddy is an atheist or agnostic, while Macy is a devoutly religious Christian. Conversations in the movie give indications why Buddy is not religious. It’s mentioned that Buddy’s single mother abandoned him when he was 4 years old, and he was raised by two aunts who were religious fanatics and very cruel to Buddy.

Buddy and Macy have another son—16-year-old Derrick (played by Jack Champion)—who is the opposite of Les. Derrick is a popular football player with a steady girlfriend at his high school, he hates musical theater, and he’s very heterosexual. When an opportunity comes up for the Buddy and Macy to relocate to New Jersey to manage the regional Barn Theater, Derrick is the only one in the family who doesn’t want to move from where they live in Ohio. “All I want is to play football and lose my virginity,” Derrick says.

This job opportunity comes with risks and challenges. It’s a temporary job where the Barn Theater’s owner Ed Monroe (played by Michael Hanrahan) has hired them for the summer to see if Buddy and Macy can boost the theater’s dwindling business. If Buddy and Macy and turn around the theater’s fortune for the better, the spouses will be hired on a permanent basis and get the opportunity to manage his Players Theater in Milwaukee.

Buddy is the most enthusiastic person in the family about this new job offer, but Macy is worried and isn’t easily convinced that it’s is a good idea. For starters, they can’t afford a place to live in New Jersey. And if they don’t get hired on a permanent basis, they’ll be financially ruined.

After some back-and-forth arguing between the spouses, Macy agrees to this relocation. Les is obviously excited about the move because he doesn’t like his life in Akron. In New Jersey, the Smart family ends up illegally squatting in a house. Macy found out through a real-estate connection that the house’s owners will be away for a while and don’t have anyone checking up on the house.

“Everything’s Going to Be Great” shows what happens when the Smart family unexpectedly has to move in with Macy’s farmer brother Walter (played by Chris Cooper) in Macy’s home state of Kansas. The movie takes a much more serious tone during the scenes where the family is in Kansas, and the focus shifts to how Les and Derrick adjust to life at their Kansas high school. Simon Rex has a small but pivotal role as a Barn Theater actor named Kyle.

“Everything’s Going to Be Great” has many of its best-acted scenes with Cranston as Buddy, an unconventional dreamer who is a loving parent but who is often so consumed with his passion for musical theater, it’s taken a toll on his marriage. Whether Buddy is playing bagpipes with Les on a front lawn or encouraging Les’ musical aspirations, it’s a great depiction of unconditional parental love. Janney gives a realistically acerbic performance a Macy, who has become resentful that her life did not turn out the way that she expected and who has insecurities about her physical appearance.

Ainsworth’s portrayal of Les is impressive, even though the movie seems like it can’t decide between telling the story from Les’ perspective or the perspective of his parents. Les’ imaginary conversations with some of his dead idols sometimes seem out-of-place and make him look like a “twee fantasy” kid when there could have been a better exploration of his creative side. There’s that brief mention in the beginning of the movie that he wrote a “Les Wiz” musical, but then the movie doesn’t show any more indications that Les has an artistic side to him, other than being an actor. Any flaws in “Everything’s Going to Be Great” are outweighed by the movie’s mostly capable and engaging way of depicting a family that you can easily imagine as being inspired by people who existed in real life.

Lionsgate released “Everything’s Going to be Great” in U.S. cinemas on June 20, 2025. The movie was released on digital and VOD on July 11, 2025.

Review: ‘Tetris’ (2023), starring Taron Egerton

May 13, 2023

by Carla Hay

Taron Egerton, Sofia Lebedeva and Nikita Efremov in “Tetris” (Photo courtesy of Apple TV+)

“Tetris” (2023)

Directed by Jon S. Baird

Some language in Japanese and Russian with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1988, in the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom and Japan, the dramatic film “Tetris” (inspired by a true story) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Asians and a few African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Video game entrepreneur Henk Rogers gets caught up in a web of ruthless business deals and political intrigue in multiple countries, as he tries to obtain worldwide licensing rights to the game Tetris.

Culture Audience: Besides appealing to the obvious traget audience of Tetris fans, “Tetris” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Taron Egerton, video games that were launched in the 1980s, and movies about real-life business underdogs.

Togo Igawa, Nino Furuhata and Taron Egerton in “Tetris” (Photo courtesy of Apple TV+)

Combining 1980s entertainment nostalgia and 1980s Cold War history lessons, the dramatic film “Tetris” also mixes facts with fiction. In this lively retelling of the Tetris game origin story, the “race against time” plot developments are obviously exaggerated for the movie. However, the double dealings and business backstabbings ring true, in addition to navigating cultural differences. “Tetris” had its world premiere at the 2023 SXSW Film and TV Festival.

Directed by Jon S. Baird and written by Noah Pink, “Tetris” can get a little too over-the-top in how it depicts the story of one man versus corporate giants and the Russian government in the fierce competition to get worldwide rights to the video game Tetris. However, the cast members’ performances elevate the movie, which has some comedic elements that easily could have looked out-of-place with the wrong cast members. “Tetris” has a winking tone to it let viewers know that the filmmakers didn’t intend to make this movie entirely factual or entirely serious.

“Tetris” (a globetrotting story that takes place in 1988) also has a visual motif used to great effect: Many of the scenes have flashes of the live-action visuals presented as if they were in the format of a Tetris game or a video game from the late 1980s. The beginning of the movie also identifies the main characters as “players,” a word that can take on multiple meanings in the context of the story. The word “player” is also more than ironic because much of what happens in all these frantic business deals for Tetris is anything but fun and games.

“Tetris” begins by showing Henk Rogers, co-founder of the small, independent company Bullet-Proof Software at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Henk is of Indonesian-Dutch heritage but he was raised primarily in the United States and lives in Japan during the period of time that this story takes place. His multicultural background comes in handy in some ways, but in other ways it becomes a hindrance when people question his cultural loyalties.

Henk is trying and failing to make his new video game a hit at CES, which is a crucial event for Bullet-Proof Software. Henk has already taken out a bank loan to launch this video game, which he now knows is going to be a flop. But as fate would have it, Henk tries a new video game at the convention: It’s called Tetris, invented by a Russian computer expert named Alexey Pajitnov (played by Nikita Yefremov), who has a humble and unassuming personality.

Alexey does not own the rights to the game. Why? Because in the Communist country that was then known as the U.S.S.R. or Soviet Union, Alexey works for the government entity ELORG, which has monopoly control of the importing and exporting of Russian-made computer products. Anyone who wants the worldwide licensing rights to sell Tetris has to go through the Soviet government first.

In the simplest of terms, Tetris is a game where players try to make buildings out of falling building blocks. Henk is immediately hooked on Tetris and thinks it could be a massive worldwide hit. And he’s willing to bet his life savings and his home on what he wants to do next: partner with a major video game company to get the worldwide licensing rights to Tetris.

An early scene in “Tetris” shows Henk trying to convince a skeptical bank manager named Eddie (played by Rick Yune) to give Henk another bank loan, this time for this Tetris endeavor. After explaining what Tetris is about, Henk tells Eddie why Henk thinks Tetris is so special: “It stays with you. It’s the perfect game.” Henk also mentions that Tetris has become an underground hit in the Soviet Union/Russia, where people have been sharing bootleg copies of Tetris on floppy disks. Eddie reluctantly agrees to the loan, on the conditions that the loan will have a high interest rate and that Henk has to put up his home as collateral.

Henk ends up sneaking into Nintendo headquarters in Japan and meeting with Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi (played by Togo Igawa) and Hiroshi’s assistant (played by Nino Furuhata) to broker for Nintendo the worldwide licensing rights to make Tetris for Nintendo cartridges and arcade machines. Henk turns down Nintendo’s initial offer of $500,000. Henk wants $2 million for the cartridges deal and $1 million for the arcade deal.

While still negotiating with Nintendo, Henk goes to Nintendo of America headquarters in Seattle, where he meets Nintendo of America CEO Minoru Arakawa (played by Ken Yamamura) and Nintendo of America senior vice president/general counsel Howard Lincoln (played by Ben Miles). Minoru and Howard show Henk a sneak peek of a product that has not gone on the market yet: Nintendo’s hand-held Game Boy system. Nintendo is planning to install the game Super Mario Land on all Game Boys, but Henk convinces Minoru and Howard that Tetris has broader appeal and should be the game installed on all Game Boys.

Henk has to contend with three British video game moguls, who at various times are his allies and enemies: duplicitous Robert Stein (played by Toby Jones), the founder/CEO of Andromeda Software; corrupt Robert Maxwell (played by Roger Allam), chairman of Mirrorsoft, a video game publisher; and arrogant Kevin Maxwell (played by Anthony Boyle), who is Robert’s son and the CEO of Mirrorsoft. Henk has been told that Robert Stein has gotten worldwide licensing rights for Tetris and has already made a deal with Mirrorsoft. Henk’s plan, with backing from Nintendo, is to buy out the rights from these British businessmen.

The rest of the movie shows Henk wheeling and dealing, while often getting undercut and betrayed by some people he thought were trustworthy business colleagues. Video game companies Sega and Atari, which were Nintendo’s main rivals at the time, also get in the mix because they also want Tetris. Meanwhile, Henk has to spend a lot of time in Russia (where he eventually meets Alexey) and finds out the hard way that doing a capitalist business deal in a Communist country is a lot more dangerous than he ever thought it could be.

Henk’s family life also suffers because of his obsession to close this deal. His patient wife Akemi Rogers (played by Ayane Nagabuchi), who co-founded Bullet-Proof Software with Henk, handles the managerial administration of the company’s small staff of employees while Henk is in charge of all the sales and marketing. Henk and Akemi have three children: 10-year-old Maya Rogers (played by Kanon Narumi), 8-year-old Julie Rogers (played by Karin Nurumi), and 6-year-old Kevin Rogers. Maya has an important dance performance that she doesn’t want Henk to miss. You can easily predict what will happen.

Meanwhile, in Russia, Henk is assigned a translator named Sasha (played by Sofia Lebedeva), who also educates Henk on Russian and Communist cultures. Henk soon finds out that he is being spied on by the Soviet government. Two of the ELORG officials who have been monitoring Henk are Valentin Trifonov (played by Igor Grabuzov) and Nikolai Belikov (played by Oleg Shtefanko). One of these ELORG officials is much worse than the other.

Egerton portrays Henk as an optimistic charmer who thinks he can talk his way in and out of situations but finds out that he sometimes gets in way over his head. He adeptly handles movie’s drama and comedy. Lebedeva is another standout as translator Sasha, who develops a friendly rapport with Henk and possibly becomes romantically attracted to him. Allam and Boyle provide some sardonic comic relief in portraying the love/hate relationship between Robert Maxwell and Kevin Maxwell. A running joke in the movie is Robert Maxwell’s bragging about being a friend of Mikhail Gorbachev (played by Matthew Marsh), who was the Soviet Union’s president at the time.

Even though “Tetris” couldn’t possibly include portrayals of all the people involved in these complex deals, there are still many characters to keep track of in the story. Luckily, “Tetris” is written well enough to juggle all of these moving pieces in a briskly paced manner, much like how skilled Tetris players navigate the game. The movie’s adrenaline-pumping climax is pure fabrication, but it’s the most memorable aspect of this thriller. “Tetris” strikes the right balance of being escapism and a reality check for how landmark business deals often happen under circumstances that can be stranger than fiction.

Apple Studios released “Tetris” in select U.S. cinemas on March 24, 2023. Apple TV+ premiered the movie on March 31, 2023.