Gillipedia Official Rating: How many puns can you think of about having a Good Time during this film
When speaking of formulaic approaches
in Hollywood, typically you’re referring to the formulas of a story, like the
meet cute rom-com. But you can extend the definition further to actors’
careers. There’s the idea of being “typecast” and how all your future roles are affected. But when I think of formulaic,
what first comes to mind is a child star growing up and turning to more mature
and adult content to break their mold. In the similar vein of breaking a mold,
it’s not surprising to see a star from a popular franchise turn to producing or
indie films after the limelight and financial success. Such is the case with
Robert Pattinson. If you watch interviews with the guy, you can tell that he
enjoys success but also really doesn’t want all the attention. He’s a kind of
weird guy who doesn’t have life completely figured out—like making weird spaghetti
concoctions that catches on fire because he put foil in a microwave… But I
digress. After his turn as sparkly vampire Edward from Twilight,
Pattinson made every effort to move on from that franchise by taking on
challenging roles in obscure films. And to be perfectly honest, if the
intention is to showcase an acting ability that appeared lost from the infamous
saga, I think he has succeeded to an incredible degree. He recently returned to
more blockbuster status in a great performance in Tenet, but he spent
the last half decade in films like The Lost City of Z, Damsel,
and The Lighthouse. All of those I’m sure attributed to the process as
well, but The Batman director Matt Reeves has already spoken about
wanting Pattinson to play the Dark Knight after seeing him in Good Time.
Good Time is the film the Safdie
brothers did before the anxiety-inducing and highly regarded Uncut Gems
starring Adam Sandler. You can expect more of that freneticism, deeply flawed
characters, and anxiety from this film. We start off with one of the Safdie
brothers playing Nick who is somewhere on the autistic spectrum. He’s in a
session with a psychiatrist trying to diagnose him when Pattinson’s character
Connie, who is also Nick’s brother, interrupts and takes him out. Immediately,
there’s a sense of Connie wanting to do right by his brother, but he also makes
some remarks about not needing Nick to be there in the first place and putting
into question if Connie knows what’s really best.
This is followed up by the scene that
really puts the story into motion. The brothers go into a bank disguised and
calmly demand the teller hand them money. They pull it off and make their
escape with a driver, but the bag is set off by a dye pack and causes the car
to crash. This forces the brothers to make their escape on foot. Eventually,
Nick falls behind and is captured by the authorities while Connie gets away.
The rest of the movie takes place during that same day and night as Connie
frantically tries different ways to figure out how to bail out his brother or
sneak him out of a hospital.
There’s a
classic trick used in action films that I’ll refer to as good news, bad news. A
problem is presented, and the good news is that the character has the solution,
but the bad news is that solution has created a new problem, and so on. It
creates tension and manufactures new obstacles that our protagonist has to
overcome on the fly. Good Time elongates this concept into the length of
the film. It reminds me of how the tagline for Joker was all about how
one bad day can change a man; this is more like how one bad decision can
completely derail a situation. Connie goes to his crazy lady friend played by
Jennifer Jason Leigh to help out with bond money for his brother, but her mom’s
credit card gets declined. When he comes back later, he learns that his brother
has been moved to a hospital due to a fight that broke out and left him
injured. Good news is that he finds the hospital, bad news is that it’s guarded
by police. He finds a way to break his brother out, but now he needs to find a
ride somewhere. And after that another problem arises, and it continues.
This is a
terrific performance from Pattinson. In nearly every situation, he requires the
aid of someone else to help him out. He charms his way into the conversation, and
then it’s a small ask at first. Once they start pushing back, he pleads to his
dire situation and how it’s only a small favor that he needs. They relent, and
he continues to ask for more and more. It’s that charming persona that holds
those underlying manipulative qualities of a desperate man. Connie is a really
interesting character, and Pattinson plays it perfectly. He interacts with
other highlight characters like Ray who just got out of prison but immediately
goes back to his habits of selling drugs because that’s all he knows. He tells a story during the film that reminded me of Michael Pena during Ant-Man. Ray is
played by Buddy Duress who appeared in the Safdie brothers’ previous film and
then went to prison soon afterward, so it’s interesting to draw that parallel. Pattinson
also has a run-in with Barkhad Abdi who you probably know as the guy from Captain
Phillips who tells Tom Hanks, “Look
at me, I am the captain now.”
Now as you’re
most likely aware, Connie isn’t a great guy. At first you think he has this
love and bond for his brother, but it’s not as simple as that. All of his
interactions play out with relatively similar results, but it follows through
with the gritty reality this film shows. There’s some heavy synth in the score,
and I think it works, but I also hold some mixed feelings about. The
cinematography, however, is quite intimate. Like in that opening scene where
Connie pulls Nick out of his meeting, Connie holds him close and reassures Nick
in the elevator. The camera is up brutally close to the two, bringing the
audience into this world while providing no room to breathe either—something that
will continue throughout the film.
I wasn’t a
huge fan of Uncut Gems largely due to how unappealing Sandler’s
character remained and a very dark ending. Now don’t go expecting a happy time
in Good Time, but I really think the Safdie brothers nailed the vibe of
this film, and I thoroughly enjoyed the quick pacing. There’s some underlying heavier
things and this isn’t a casual watch, but this is a well-acted film with a dark
tone that is a finished product through and through. With the PG-13 rating, I
don’t think The Batman will ultimately draw too much from this film, but
if you are still somehow someone that hasn’t put Pattinson past his Twilight
days, then you should check this out and see his range as a performer. I think
it might be leaving soon, but at the time of writing this review, you can still
find Good Time on Netflix.
