Good Time (2017)

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Directors: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie

Writers: Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie

Stars: Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Buddy Duress, Taliah Webster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Barkhad Abdi



Connie (Robert Pattinson), a perpetual screw-up, spends a harrowing night trying to scrape some money together to bail his developmentally disabled brother (Benny Safdie) out of jail after a failed bank robbery that the two attempted together and from which Connie barely escaped.

 


The tone, atmosphere, and pacing of this film are so masterful that I felt like I was living it rather than just watching it.

 


Connie would be a difficult character to empathize with if co-directors Josh and Benny Safdie and Pattinson hadn’t infused him with so much humanity. 



His most saving grace is that he truly cares for his brother and wants to look out for him. 



The problem is that his love is no damned good; it motivates him to make one bad choice after another, triggering a chain of increasingly disastrous consequences.

 


This is effectively dramatized right from the beginning of the film when Connie pulls Nick out of a court-ordered therapy session in which he actually seems primed to make some progress because Connie thinks it will be better for Nick to make some quick cash from the bank job.

 


Pattinson stands out in a fine cast.



Spoiler alert!!! From the end of the film!!













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