It’s not often we see a high-wire American crime/thriller
without a single shot of a gun. Josh and Ben Safdie’s Good Time (2017) is
bathed with frenzied energy and profanity-ridden paranoia, relentlessly
generated by a reckless blonde-haired protagonist. It’s definitely a violent
film that exposes a part of New York’s crime underbelly in a gritty and
authentic manner. Yet the Safdie brothers smartly subverts from the usage of typical
gun violence and still succeeds in showcasing the unconscionable brutality of
one man with questionable morals. Good Time possesses the mad-cap energy of
Martin Scorsese Michael Mann’s early movies. From incorporating guerilla-style film-making
for observing the unforeseeably volatile street life to unveiling raw emotions
of the characters, it owes a lot to those film-makers' idiosyncratic crime flicks.
Irrational behavior and self-destruction is pretty much the
origination point of the Safdie Brothers’ New York based pieces. Their
semi-auto-biographical first feature Daddy Longlegs (aka Go Get Some Rosemary,
2010) is about a disorderly father figure. Heroin-addiction drama Heaven Knows
What (2015) is a sensational blend of fiction and raw documentary which was based
on the unpublished memoir of Arielle Holmes who plays a lightly fictionalized
version of herself. With Ronald Bronstein once again taking up the co-writer
& co-editor duties, Good Time becomes a perfect canvas for the brothers’ oddly visceral
character study: this time a feckless conman mad scrambling over the course of
a long New York night. The narrative is uncomfortably contrived and disjointed
at times, failing to replicate the staying power of the aforementioned
film-makers’ works. Nevertheless, the film keeps us totally occupied throughout
its running time and moreover Robert Pattinson’s pitch-perfect metamorphosis as
a frazzled small-time crook is a marvel to behold.
The narrative that runs over the course of two days and one
night opens at the office of a social services psychiatrist. He interviews the
mentally challenged Nick Nikas (Benny Safdie) and gradually motivates him to
not just give monosyllabic answers. There’s a sense that the psychiatrist is
breaking through Nick to address his problems when Constantine Nikas aka Connie
(Robert Pattinson) barges in and takes out his younger sibling. The chaos that
starts there with Connie’s intrusion never relents from then on. Connie is
fiercely protective of Nick whom it is early implied that suffered at the hands
of their grandmother. Nevertheless, it becomes evident that Connie’s love for
Nick can destroy things as we see them entering a bank with a rubber mask which disguises themselves as black men. Connie silently passes out a note to the
teller and receives the money in a tightrope sequence. The Safdie brothers
shackle us to the claustrophobic, tunnel vision shots of its characters throughout
the narrative (similar to dazzling, single-take crime thriller Victoria) that
we repeatedly fret over the dangers lurking outside the frames. The bank
robbery plan is botched by the teller’s smartness and Nick’s ineptitude. On
hindsight, the bank robbery seems to be the least preposterous of Connie’s
schemes. What follows is a helter skelter chase through the grim alleys and
neon-lights of New York, where our self-centered, belligerent protagonist makes
a great mess of things.
Ben and Josh Safdie perfectly channel their peculiar,
particular style into many of the typical genre scenarios. This tactic of
putting a fresh-spin on familiar things brings forth certain fascinating visual
designs and staging. For example, the scene towards the end, when the tunnel
vision suddenly breaks into an agoraphobic shot in order to showcase an
entirely different perspective, or the creepily-lit chase sequence at the
fun-house. The other strong aspect of Safdies’ direction is how they hint at the
inherent ugliness of the protagonist or his penchant for cruel decisions
without often resorting to in-your-face violence outbursts. Sean Price Williams’ (Queen of Earth, Heaven Knows What) anxiety-ridden cinematography
applies a lot of vivacious primary colors and perpetually suggests ominousness
through extended & effective close-up shots. Daniel Lopatin’s
pulse-pounding synth score (the musician is credited under a weird pseudonym
‘Oneohtrix Point Never’) finely attunes to the deliriously vibrant visuals.
As I mentioned earlier, Good Time doesn’t have much depth to
it. It’s designed as an immersive visual experience. Whatever subtext or
meaning it poses beneath is few and far between. Although the sheer
unpredictability and bat-shit craziness of the narrative attracts comparison to
less-seen masterpieces like After Hours (1985), it never reaches that level of thematic profundity [‘the kind of existential hell dreamed up by Sartre’,
says the Sense of Cinema article about After Hours]. The one memorable, if not
overt, social commentary in Good Time is its depiction of casual systemic
racism. We are left wondering why the cops attending the alarm at Amusment Park
immediately believe Connie’s words and assume the black guy as the perpetrator.
In fact, the two people arrested in that scene are innocent ones, yet cuffed on
the basis of their color [the white guys wearing African-American masks to rob
a bank is taken from a real scenario]. The brothers’ also makes a slight
commentary on the mental health industry, painting the fate of Nick with an
ambiguity in the unexpected final sequence. Robert Pattinson takes a big leap
forward with the role of Connie. But it would simply be myopic and unnecessarily hyped-up to draw parallels with the antihero protagonists of Dog
Day Afternoon and Taxi Driver. The inherent problem with Connie is that he is
neither likable nor his antics relatable on some level. The downward spiral of
the character only stays amusing at times (never wholly disturbing) that the
title doesn’t feel totally ironic. If not for Pattinson’s undeniably intense
presence, the self-destructive journey of Connie wouldn’t have engrossed us this much. Apart
from the vibrant performance of Buddy Duress as the gaunt knucklehead Ray, the
supporting performers like Jennifer Jason Leigh and Barkhad Abdi are just
recruited to play stock character types.
Trailer
The young film-making brothers from New York – Ben and
Josh Safdie – repeat their talent for constructing atmosphere of chaos and
mayhem in their well-received, third feature-film Good Time (100 minutes). Bolstered
by Robert Pattinson’s electrifying performance and the brothers’ singular
creative energy, the film makes up for what it lacks in emotional depth.
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