Cast: Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie
Director: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie
Genre: Drama, Crime
Synopsis: A high-octane crime drama chronicling a bank robber's desperate attempts to prevent his mentally handicapped brother from being sent to prison.
Director: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie
Genre: Drama, Crime
Synopsis: A high-octane crime drama chronicling a bank robber's desperate attempts to prevent his mentally handicapped brother from being sent to prison.
I have been quite busy with school recently but I have been able to watch some movies I might want to write about in my free time. My friend suggested I watch Good Time (2017) and I noticed it was on Netflix so here I am, a few hours later.
Good Time premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and has since received widespread critical acclaim. It is best described as a crime film of sorts but as it progresses it becomes clear that it is a film about desperation and untamed love and how it can prove to be destructive.
The characters are very unsympathetic but Good Time pulls this off with truly great performances. Robert Pattinson delivers his best performance yet as Connie Nikas, a criminal anti-hero. At his side is his mentally handicapped brother, Nick Nikas (co-director Ben Safdie). The film starts with him sitting uncomfortably in a court-ordered therapy session as it is revealed that he was violent with his grandmother and is not able to control his anger. When Connie enters the scene he physically tears him away from the session and ropes him into committing a bank robbery with him, all the while telling him "I love you [...] It's just you and me". Here it is made clear that while Connie is seemingly protective of his brother, he leads him directly into danger. The bank robbery goes south quickly and Nick ends up in Rikers Island prison. What follows are Connie's manic attempts to secure a bail bond for his brother while he keeps getting sidetracked by increasingly bad decisions. The film takes place over one restless night, drenched in an atmosphere of chaos.
Spoilers for Good Time follow.
Cinematographer Sean Price Williams enhances this uneasy and intense atmosphere, utilizing handheld camera close-ups and jittery movements, giving the film a claustrophobic atmosphere. The film was shot on 35mm film but lit with LED panels, soaking up every shade of neon pinks, blues, and greens, amplifying the hallucinatory atmosphere in every scene with the exception of the opening and closing scenes. This is notable because they are one of the only scenes not centered on Connie and in these scenes the cinematography lends a much-needed quality of calm and order. Sean's work is perfectly complimented by Oneohtrix Point Never's tense score, utilizing synths and ambient noises to create an emotional uncertainty that does not tell the viewers how they should feel and this supports the themes of moral ambiguity throughout the film.
The movie takes place in Queens, New York which is notable for its diverse neighborhoods and this is reflected in its cast of supporting characters. Although the Safdie brothers refrain from making any explicit political statements, they shed some hard truths on white privilege and color blindness and how it affects us. While Connie is bright and resourceful, he is also a master manipulator and uses his charm to rope others into his plans, seemingly unable to achieve anything on his own. He seems oblivious to this dependancy and strives on seeming independent, fuelling his ego exponentially and reinforcing his belief that Nick cannot survive without his help. The opening scene portrays Connie and Nick disguising themselves as African Americans to rob a bank (people actually do this). Later, Connie practically invites himself into the home of Annie, a Haitian, before coming on to her daughter Crystal whom he later abandons. On the last leg of his mission, he brutally assaults a Somali security guard and pours a bottle of LSD solution into his mouth, making him incoherent and effectively framing him as the culprit when the all-white police squad arrives. The police also arrest Crystal when they arrive but Connie walks away, once again avoiding the consequences of his actions. I think this is an interesting commentary on the way many white people in America expect to be treated and the often unconscious prerogatives of white America.
The ending scene is probably my favorite. As the film draws closer to its ending, it becomes increasingly clear that Connie's plan is falling apart and when he is eventually captured by the police, it does not come as a big surprise. The final shot of him is a slow zoom-in of him sitting in the back of a police car, realizing his plan has failed and, maybe, finally realizing the effects of his actions on the lives of others. The shot ends with a cross-cut to Nick, who has now joined a therapy class, and it is implied that Connie confessed to coercing his brother into robbing the bank with him. While the credits roll and Iggy Pop sings in the background, Nick participates in group activities in an unexpectedly poignant scene. The group is instructed to listen to a statement and cross the room if it applies to them. When a participant states that they have had issues with their family before, Nick crosses the room. Another participant states that they have been blamed for something they did not do, Nick crosses the room again. It is an unexpectedly touching scene; for the first time in the film, Nick is given the agency to communicate how he feels and what he wants, having previously been robbed of that agency. I highly recommend this film.