Good Time is a remarkable bad time experience done very well. The first high-profile film from indie filmmaking siblings The Safdie Brothers, Good Time is a caper thriller that harkens back to the rotten core of '70s NYC dramas. A dirty city and its working-class residents are the core of this relentless film.
Former British Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson is unrecognizable as Connie, a scruffy petty criminal from Queens, who is trying to pull off a bank heist with Nick, his mentally challenged brother.
One bad turn leads to another and Nick lands in jail. It's up to desperate Connie to scrape together the bail money to spring him. This leads him into one misadventure after another.
And bad, quickie hair dye jobs are the least of his worries.
Good Time plays like a dour, mean version of Martin Scorsese's After Hours. Falling into one failed impromptu plot after another, Connie hopscotches through the night of outer boroughs New York City. There's no glamour and Manhattan glitz in this world of hospital corridors, project high rises, White Castle burgers, empty carnival fun houses, and cold city streets.
The tension is perfectly ratcheted up as we careen along with Connie, making up the path as he stumbles along. The early '80s John Carpenter-esque synth score, by Oneohtrix Point Never provides ample dread-filled ambiance.
This image of underbelly New York is hard to shake. A remarkable "feel bad" journey.
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