This film was anything BUT a good time.
I had a peaked interest in checking this film out after a glowing recommendation from Pete Davidson. The Safdie Brothers caught my attention with Uncut Gems (2019), so I thought this could be an interesting ride.
It would appear Pete and I do not have the same taste in movies.
Good Time follows two brothers, Connie (Robert Pattinson) and Nick (Benny Safdie), who appear to be in a tough spot financially. This leads them to crime, robbery to be specific, and the two of them end up in an even worse situation than before. Nick ends up in jail, and Connie feels a responsibility to get him out.
The majority of the film shows Connie making terrible choices, exploiting others, and ultimately failing over and over again.
(SPOILERS)
So, Connie appears to be the brains of this operation since we see Benny has some sort of disability. Knowing that the actor playing Benny is also one of the directors really took me out of the story, and the character was more difficult to watch. Also, labeling Connie "the brains" is a terrible over statement.
Throughout the story, Connie gets into various situations involving other people, and ultimately uses them as he sees fit in order to reach his goal. As he continues telling himself and others that he needs to save his brother from jail, it becomes clear that he is not doing this for purely selfless reasons.
Nick unwittingly instigates a beating while in prison, and ends up in the hospital. This is around the time Connie is trying to bail him out, and we see a string of bad choices.
We see Connie come in contact with a few people, and each plays their role in moving the story forward:
Corey (Jennifer Jason Leigh) plays a woman attempting to be Connie's love interest. He ultimately uses her for her money, which ends up not working out and then we do not see her again.
Then we meet Crystal (Taliah Webster), a SIXTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL, who he kisses as a form of distraction and constantly lies to. How are people not talking about how terribly inappropriate this is?
Then there is Ray (Buddy Duress). He is the guy Connie accidentally takes from the hospital instead of his brother. His story is pretty interesting, but we only see him until his presence no longer serves Connie. Then he literally falls out of a window.
As we see each of these characters interact with our protagonist, it becomes clear Connie is not just trying to do the right thing and help his brother. It is established earlier on in the first scene he doesn't truly care about his brother or his mental health, at least not as much as he cares about himself.
This opening scene shows a close shot of Nick and a psychologist having a conversation. We get a full picture of Nick's mental stability, a look into his home life, and a small bit of potential he has for progression. This is abruptly interrupted by Connie, who comes to "save him" and take care of him, because he is the only one who truly cares about him.
Then he let's Nick get arrested. After he is manipulated into robbing a bank.
From then on Connie continues to try to "save" him, when in reality he is the one Nick needs to be saved from. Once Connie is finally arrested is allows Nick to go back to therapy, and seek connections with others like him and in a safe environment.
Connie is erratic, self-serving and has a tendency to get way to comfortable in other people's homes. It's really difficult to like this character, and even more difficult to sympathize with him once you realize how little he truly cares about anyone but himself. He is the villain. But he honestly doesn't seem to understand why things keep going wrong, which is even harder to watch.
Nick is our hero, kind of. Even though we don't seem him hardly at all, nor is he really active in his own story, he is the one I find myself rooting for. Connie going to jail is the happy ending for this story. And this film takes an hour and a half making us hate him just for the joy of seeing him finally in the back of that cop car.
Even though the title of this movie was very misleading, the story was compelling. It is not one I would want to watch again, but visually I was entertained, and the character development was unique. This did not feel like a realistic story, but it was a movie. The Safdie brothers made something that told a specific story, and it was very artistically done.
I wouldn't recommend this movie to just anyone. If you're into art house type thriller movies and also happen to like movies where your main guy is CONSTANTLY screwing things up, go for it. Otherwise, this is way too stressful.
Rating: 4/10
This film is currently available on Netflix. All photos courtesy of IMDB.com
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