Good Time is a Great Time
Benny and Josh Safdie’s Good Time is more than just a lousy Good Time at the movies. One of the best movies of 2017 begins with a fantastic opening sequence in which Connie (Robert Pattinson) and his mentally challenged brother Nick (Benny Safdie) rob a bank. The bank robbery goes wrong as the teller puts a can of dye pack instead of money and Nick gets arrested by the police and sent to prison after a foot chase. It’s up to Connie to try and get Nick out of prison before something terrible happens to him.
The people that say that Robert Pattinson would do a terrible Batman because of Twilight need to seriously watch Good Time to know how incredible of a performance he gives — the best performance of his entire career. You don’t really know much from Connie aside from the fact that psychologists and his grandmother think he’s abusing and using his mentally challenged brother for his own gains. I’ve never seen Robert Pattinson this good — a role that’s tailor-made for him; at the beginning he is rude, but bursting with confidence, until Nick decides to run away from the police. The entire chase sequence and wonderful performances from Pattinson and co-director Benny Safdie are coupled by a Giorgio Moroder-esque soundtrack by Oneohtrix Point Never that assaults your senses and widens them.The soundtrack makes the entire movie feel adrenaline-fueled and highly-energetic.
There’s never a moment in Good Time in which you’re not at the edge of your seat. Every single sequence, beautifully shot by Sean Price Williams and meticulously directed by The Safdie Brothers is as thrilling as the last one. You root for Connie to get Nick out, even though he is hard to relate to. He doesn’t care about anyone but his brother, such as using his girlfriend (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to use her credit card so she can pay the 10,000$ bond to get him out. That doesn’t work, so he decides to break Nick out of the hospital after he was beaten by jail inmates. After an elaborate scheme with a scene that leaves you on complete edge, Nick actually broke the wrong inmate out. The best sequence of the movie is when thatsaid inmate gives a flashback on how he was bruised. The performance from Buddy Duress and the dialogue is absolutely fantastic — alongside the wonderful soundtrack. The film is a complete assault to the senses with its soundtrack, which reminded me too much of Giorgio Moroder’s synth-infused Midnight Express, particularly during foot chase sequences. Remember G. Moroder’s Chase? Ramp it up to a thousand.
With beautiful cinematography wonderfully coupled by its synth score, a career-best performance from Robert Pattinson who steals every single sequence he’s in; alongside great supporting performances from Jennifer Jason Leigh, Buddy Duress, Benny Safdie and Barkhad Abdi whose gibberish is the greatest I’ve seen, fantastic and thrilling action sequences that put you, the audience member, on edge the entire time; Good Time is one of the best movies of 2017. It contains one of the best screenplays of the year, with fantastic dialogue-driven sequences one after the other, especially because they contain fantastic performances from a great cast. It reminded me of a late 70s — early 80s schlock thriller, but everything in it is so good that the schlock aspect of it doesn’t really apply. It’s a fantastic crime thriller that needs to be experienced with a home theater system with great sound quality, because the sound design will completely envelop you in the film’s rollicking story.
Don’t ever doubt Robert Pattinson’s acting abilities ever again after this.
✯✯✯✯✯
