Good Time follows Constantine Nikas (Robert Pattinson) and his wild night on the streets of New York following a botched bank robbery that lands his mentally disabled brother Nick (Benny Safdie) in jail. Desperate to get Nick out, Constantine finds himself in a continually compounded bad situation.
Good Time is a well acted and uniquely shot film that examines how far one will go for the sake of their family. Constantine and Nick come from an orphaned background, raised by their tough grandmother with only each other to lean on and trust. Constantine feels a sense of responsibility to his disabled brother, taking on the mantle of provider and protector far before he was ready to assume such tasks. In his travels, Constantine bumps into a young teen with a similar background named Crystal (Taliah Webster) who is falling prey to similar dabbling into rough street experiences. The lack of supervision leading to young people making poor choices is a tangible theme of the movie.
The film is also a realistic dark, gritty look at a piece of New York City life within the borough of poor and working class Queens that isn’t portrayed on film as much as glitzy Manhattan. The authentic feel and look of this environment is a strength of its directors the Safdie Brothers who are beginning to make the portrayal of the gritty New York perspective their trademark. Good Time is very reminiscent of 1995’s Kids in that way. The way that the film is shot is also unique with a lot of almost first person, close up facial shots of the characters used in conjunction with shaky cam. The result is a very immersive film that makes you feel as if you’re right in the middle of every scene, as well as a film that really conveys how chaotic everything is that is unfolding.
Good Time is very well acted, with Robert Pattinson serving as the lead actor with most of the screen time. Pattinson has been hard at work in recent years taking on very disparate, unique roles that he can disappear into in order to separate himself from his Twilight notoriety (as has former co-star and girlfriend Kristen Stewart). Like Stewart, his efforts have been successful and Pattinson is quickly establishing himself as a serious actor with wide-ranging abilities. He is completely convincing as a too clever for his own good, poor white trash kid from the street. The rest of the cast is similarly convincing as people that you’d run into in the far reaches of New York past midnight, hardened by city life. Co-director Benny Safdie in particular is convincing as Nick, particularly an emotional opening scene that features him being evaluated for mental aptitude.
From everything that I’ve written preceding this paragraph, Good Time sounds like a very good movie. Uniquely shot with interesting, timely themes, wonderfully acted, and different. Despite all these quality ingredients, the final product just did not connect for me after the first watch. I didn’t care about the characters at all nor what the outcome of their story would be. I wasn’t interested in where the story was going or what was happening to everyone. It wasn’t just because aside from a few people everyone we met was detestable, because detestable people often make for the most compelling fictional characters. More so, I felt nothing drawing me into their lives and their plight. While the film is well executed and aesthetically pleasing, the lack of satisfaction in the story kept me from enjoying the work as a whole.
Despite this initial feeling, the uniqueness of the film and how it’s executed has really stuck with me post-viewing. Good Time is unforgettable and has grown on me some as I’ve digested it thought on it some more. Films that stick in your head and leave you continuing to contemplate them long after you’ve watched are valuable; what more could you ask for from art? Its immersive look into New York City is a true feat in film making, as is the originality in its vision and storytelling. This type of unrestrained, distinctive cinema is to be cherished in an era of bland sameness and formulaic output. While I didn’t connect with any of the characters, I am excited to see what the Safdi brothers have to offer next.
Image: A24
