Good Time

mother! was pretty brutal overall, and really the best way to wash it down is with Benny and Josh Safdie's Good Time. This was the double-feature I completed the other weekend, and it was a great reminder that things could be worse. Of course, given the current state of the news, real life for some people is much, much worse than these movies, but that's a tangent I won't go off on here. 

I want to take a moment to tip my cap to Robert Pattinson. To go from Harry Potter and Twilight to Cosmopolis and Good Time, is one hell of a career move. As Connie Nikas, Pattinson undergoes a true transformation. This is a living, breathing character, and my god is he a fuck-up. Good Time tells the story of a brother who means well, but endangers and/or destroys the lives of everyone he seems to come into contact with. I wrote about mother! swinging for the fences, but Good Time is just as ambitious with its commitment. The stakes and consequences are huge and feel authentic, and it doesn't shy away from the consequences.

Around the mid-point of the movie, there is an acid sequence that I am a little torn on. It's well done and brilliantly edited, but it also seems to come out of nowhere. I suppose I'm more critical of how jarring it is for the script, as opposed to the overall execution. It's definitely one of the best sequences of the year so far, though.

I think I also would've like more scenes from Nick Nickas' point of view. The film is dominated by Connie's perspective, and at times, you wonder what's going on with Nick. The closing credits sequence is emotional and well done, but aside from that, I don't feel like I know enough about Nick and what's going on inside his head. I understand that that's more complicated, given his mental capabilities, but Benny Safdie did a good enough job with the role to fill the audience in on his emotional state. I guess I'm just looking for a little bit more.

Other than that, I have no complaints. This was easily one of the better movies that I've seen this year. I'd like to revisit soon to see if my opinion will change with a second viewing, but it has definitely stayed with me as being both completely enthralling and heartbreaking.