The thing about Bryan Cranston is—he disarms you. One minute you’re watching a sitcom dad with his pants down. The next, he’s cooking meth and breaking bad in the desert. And now, in Everything’s Going to Be Great, which premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, Cranston’s at it again—this time wielding emotional dynamite wrapped in a smile.
The title? Deceptively sunny. And Cranston knows it.
“When I first read the title, I thought, ‘Oh, I hope this is going to be great.’ And it didn’t disappoint,” he told JustWatch. “There is a HUGE surprise in the middle of this movie that will SHOCK you. And it speaks to life itself.”
No spoilers here—but he’s not overselling. Midway through the film, a moment lands like a brick through glass. You gasp. Not because it’s dramatic in the Hollywood sense, but because it’s true. Uncomfortably true. The kind of truth that sneaks in wearing a familiar face and then quietly rearranges everything you thought you understood about grief, connection, and memory.
This Isn’t a Sundance-Tinged Therapy Session
Cranston plays Buddy Smart, a relentlessly hopeful regional theater producer—yes, that kind of guy—who still believes the show can go on, even when the curtain’s ripped and the audience has left the building. His optimism is both endearing and tragic. You know the type: someone who talks in musical metaphors but can’t quite face the dissonance at home.
Opposite him is Allison Janney (sharp as ever), part of an estranged family pulled back together for one pressure-cooked weekend. That premise might sound familiar—and it is. But director Meg Marchand isn’t playing it safe. The film isn’t about reconciliation. It’s about recognition. That subtle, painful shift when you realize the people you love aren’t who they used to be—and maybe neither are you.
“We Anticipate People Being With Us…”
That line from Cranston’s interview lingers. The expectation that life stays static—that your high school friends will always be your best friends, that your parents won’t break down, that family gatherings won’t carry invisible landmines. Everything’s Going to Be Great thrives in that uncomfortable truth. The impermanence. The drift.
But this isn’t a downer. Far from it.
The film is funny—darkly, awkwardly, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. And it’s packed with the kind of moments you don’t see coming: a shared song, a burned dinner, an old voicemail. These tiny beats form the emotional heartbeat of a story that’s less about what happens and more about what stays.
Cranston Isn’t Playing Walter White Here
And thank God for that. Buddy Smart might be his most vulnerable role in years. He’s not scheming. He’s not melting down. He’s just trying—desperately—to keep something beautiful from slipping through his fingers. It’s all there in his posture, the way he holds a silence longer than he should, how his smile falters mid-joke.
It’s no accident this film landed at Tribeca. There’s a New York energy in its bones—raw, restless, resilient. The kind of film that doesn’t need explosions to make your chest hurt.
Everything, All at Once
Cranston put it best: “It’s aspirational, it’s hopeful, it’s sad, it’s sweet, it’s joyous, it’s family, it’s argumentative. It’s all of these things wrapped into one.”
And really, what else is there to say? Life doesn’t hand you one note—it gives you a whole damn score. This film plays it, flaws and all.
Is it perfect? No. But maybe that’s the point.
It stays with you. Like a song your dad used to hum. Like a voicemail you can’t delete. Like the last time you saw someone and didn’t know it was the last.
Everything’s Going to Be Great doesn’t promise a fix. Just a feeling. And sometimes, that’s enough.
Tribeca Festival Premiere: June 2025
Starring: Bryan Cranston, Allison Janney
Director: Meg Marchand
Streaming info: JustWatch page
