Good Time (2017)

Neon Lit Noir: Benny Safdie in Good Time

The Safdie brothers' Good Time is a nervy slice of neon lit noir that stays true to its scuzzy narrative. Some critics have been troubled by the film's brutality and by the egregious stupidity of its characters. However, I found this to be an apt portrayal of low rent hoods engaged in acts of desperation that lurch out of control and entrap the miscreants themselves. The Safdies' world is amoral, but it does not lack karma. Robert Pattison's protagonist is a mook and a thug, but he is clearly the one eyed man in the land of the blind in this New York of dark alleys, pawn shops and fast food restaurants. 

Dysfunctional families abound in the Safdies' vision of the working class side of Gotham. Pattison's Connie is charged with looking after his developmentally disabled brother Nick, played by co-director Benny Safdie. Connie enlists his brother in a series of petty crimes culminating in an unsuccessful bank robbery. Nick is incarcerated and Connie's attempts to spring him, first by posting bail and then through nefarious means, constitutes the majority of the film.

Along Connie's futile attempts to free Benny, we run across fine supporting turns by Jennifer Jason Leigh, Eric Paykert and the already established members of the Safdie stock company, with many playing fictionalized versions of themselves. Particularly stunning is Taliah Webster as a sixteen year old Haitian immigrant named Crystal who becomes enmeshed in Connie's machinations. The naturalized acting adds to the verisimilitude, as do the well chosen locations.

Robert Pattinson in Good Time

Much of the success and potency of the film is due to Pattinson's performance. He holds the screen for most of the film in a role perhaps more suited to a Wahlberg. He has already successfully portrayed a New York shark in Cosmopolis and here plays a lower class version of that role with vigor. His lead turns for Cronenberg and supporting roles in The Lost City of Z, Queen of the Desert and The Rover have established him as a consummate performer. It is heartening how both he and Kristen Stewart have used the momentum of their Twilight films to pursue more adventurous roles.

The Safdie brothers use a hand-held, cinema-verite approach with many tight close-ups and distorted angles. this contributes to the claustrophobic feel of the film which underscores the actions of a protagonist whose predicament feels increasingly hopeless. His creepy make out session with Crystal, to prevent her from seeing a news report on his crimes, adds to our unease, as do the plethora of screens employed more to obscure than reveal human motivation. Good Time is not a pleasant film, but it is an unsettling chronicle of the lost. (12/22/17)