Director Jon S. Baird and writer Steven Rogers give us a love letter to live theatre with ‘Everything’s Going to Be Great‘.
‘Everything’s Going to Be Great‘ is a warm, sharply funny dramedy about the families we build through art and the chaos that comes with them. Allison Janney and Bryan Cranston lead as Macy and Buddy Smart, lifelong partners in love and in their scrappy 
regional theater company, who’ve spent decades raising two boys and staging shows across the country. Their sons, Derrick (Jack Champion) and Lester (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), are polar opposites, yet equally shaped by their parents’ relentless optimism and offbeat lifestyle. When a long-shot opportunity arises, the family is forced to confront whether their dream is still worth chasing—or whether it’s time to let go.
The film is directed by Jon S. Baird [‘Tetris‘, ‘Stan & Ollie‘ (a personal favorite)] and written by Steven Rogers (‘I, Tonya‘), who spoke with me about the personal roots and tonal tightrope of the story. Rogers, whose father worked in regional theater, shared that the script began as a love letter to a world rarely shown on screen. He chuckled when I brought up his name’s more famous Marvel namesake—something he’s heard his entire life and assured me he is, in fact, not Captain America.
Baird was impressed that I pronounced his surname in the proper Scottish fashion (something that was truly a shot in the dark). He said he was drawn in immediately by the script’s emotional shifts, laughing on one page, tearing up the next. The film’s central idea, that the family business is the dream, resonated deeply with him.
Produced by Bryan Unkeless, Alex Lalonde, and Rogers, with an ensemble that also includes Simon Rex and Chris Cooper, Everything’s Going to Be Great lives up to its title—not because the road is easy, but because it’s worth the ride. Through setbacks and setbacks (including COVID-era delays), the team held onto the belief that this was a story worth telling. That passion is all over the screen.
‘Everything’s Going to Be Great‘ comes to theaters on Friday, June 20, 2025.
