Good Time **** (2017, Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Jennifer Jason Leigh) – Movie Review

The ironically titled Good Time is an extremely powerful thriller, mega tense and atmospheric. Career best performance (so far) by Robert Pattinson, a revelation, complete with rock solid, very particular American accent.

Robert Pattinson and Benny Safdie star as Greek American low-life brothers Connie and Nick Nikas. Connie is conniving and clever, but of limited intelligence, and Nick has learning difficulties. They pull off a bank heist in rubber masks, but it all goes wrong when they try to escape and then access the cash and are sprayed with red dye.

After an epic chase, Connie gets away but Nick is apprehended, badly hurt after falling through plate glass. Connie tries to get his mom (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to use her credit card to top up the money needed for the bail bond to get his troubled brother out of Rikers Island that same night. When that goes wrong, he takes direct action to spring Nick from the hospital. Talk about resourceful!

It turns into one hell of a long, dark night, as the brothers try to rescue themselves from the clutches of the authorities.

There’s a tremendous, nerve-jangling score by Oneohtrix Point Never (aka Daniel Lopatin) and Sean Price Williams’s cinematography is a grungy eye-catcher. The main credit must go to Benny and Josh Safdie, the directors, and Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein as the writers. Pattinson and Benny Safdie are both tremendous as the brothers, but, with much more to do, it is Pattinson’s film, though the film seems to be about the brother as it starts and ends with him. After 30 years of workout, Leigh does deranged better than almost anybody.

The irony of the Good Time title is for the characters, but not for the audience. In fact a Good Time is guaranteed for fans of lowlife crime thrillers. Pattinson’s former RobPat teeny fans, however, will be in shock.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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