By Ryan Keating-Lambert
★★★★☆
Cannes crowd pleaser Good Time is an in your face adrenalin rush. The Safdie Brothers deliver a heist thriller that’s inventive, addictive, and bursting at the seams with bittersweet chaos.
Constantine ‘Connie’ Nikas (Robert Pattinson) botches up a bank robbery with his mentally handicapped brother Nick, and is forced to bail him out of jail by any means necessary.
The Safdie Brothers (Daddy Long Legs, Heaven Knows What) have managed to get deep under the skin of their native Queens, criss-crossing through the characters of its criminal underworld. Good Time is, for the most part, a remarkably well-paced heist within a heist thriller, but is also framed around the brother’s unconditional love and hope for a better future. Themes of white privilege and police brutality also pop up regularly. In many ways, Good Time is the new crime thriller for the Trump era.
Pattinson gives a career best as the quick-witted Connie. He completely strips himself of the teen heart throb persona that he garnered over 5 Twilight films and sports a wiry beard, messy hair, and an assortment of hoodies. He’s a mesmerising mess, and runs from one uncomfortable situation to the next. Jennifer Jason-Leigh also makes a brief but memorable appearance as Connie’s desperate love interest, and director Benny Safdie brings an element of grace and empathy as Connie’s brother Nick.
This film’s rapid fire journey is intensified only by its wonderfully experimental and electronic score by Oneohtrix Point Never, and its sometimes nauseating hand-held camera work that really puts you in the room with these unpredictable personalities.
Final verdict: This is an instant classic. A crime film for the Trump era. Connie’s journey is an insane drug trip – sickening but totally and utterly addictive.
Photo: Hypable
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