Film: Good Time

Good Time is not just pulsating pulp. Stylistic brilliance, frenetic electronica, a frantic Robert Pattinson, and especially the symbiosis with New York and its outcasts make this film far better than the average fare.

Don’t be late because Good Time takes a flying start and you would have as much trouble catching up with a rollercoaster. With moving abandon and torment, Robert Pattinson (Twilight, The Rover) plays Connie, a repeat offender who desperately needs his passion and improvisational talent to get himself out of trouble.

Trouble that is usually the result of terrible ideas. Robbing a bank with his mentally handicapped brother (co-director Benny Safdie) is not a good plan. Following a spectacular car chase, brother dear is behind bars, stuck amid a rabble that has little sympathy with his limited intellectual capacities. To get his brother out on bail, Connie goes into overdrive during a night that doesn’t end, with one reckless twist after another.

It is not all perfect, but does Good Time quicken your pulse and make you want to talk about it enthusiastically? Absolutely. The soundtrack by Oneohtrix Point Never will be both loved and hated. We’ve already bought our copy, but we can easily imagine that some people will find the pulsating, avant-garde electronica too obtrusive. The pulp fiction can get on your nerves.

At a certain point, the wild joy of telling a story takes over from rationality and the directing brothers Josh and Benny Safdie lose focus on their theme and what exactly they want to tell us apart from the madcap plot. But is that such a disaster? No. Not when we get so much urgency and entertainment in return, with witty dialogues, whimsical characters, a devilish pace, and great camera work.

Familiarity with and devotion to the streets of New York and the residents who are struggling and have been forced into the margins of society is what gives this cinephile neo-thriller the tenacity that elevates it above mediocrity.

> Good Time. US, dir.: Josh & Benny Safdie, act.: Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Jennifer Jason Leigh