The economic maladies portrayed in Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune have degrees of legitimacy and resonance, but they are rooted in a profoundly misguided worldview. This is Ansari’s first major work since his 2018 #MeToo cancellation — sparked by a tabloid exposé of a bad date — and he returns with a script and directorial debut that combines the stubbornly obtuse economics of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath with the blithe tone of a buddy comedy.

Ansari casts himself as Arj, a downtrodden documentary filmmaker working odd jobs to get by. The film fixates much of its ire on the gig economy; Arj is seen doing everything from food delivery to standing in line for others — anything to make ends meet. He is no noble, starving artist from Puccini’s La Bohème but simply broke, exhausted, and ready to surrender. Despondent, he is visited by Gabriel (Keanu Reeves), a guardian angel in this modernized pastiche of It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), where the ostensibly malevolent banker has been replaced by a bumbling tech millionaire named Jeff, played by Seth Rogen.