Good Time (2017)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Good Time (2017) – B. Safdie & J. Safdie

Benny and Josh Safdie are hot indie directors and this 2017 feature may be their breakthrough (the first of their films I’ve watched).  Robert Pattinson stars as Connie, a hoodlum (more or less) who stages a bank robbery with his intellectually disabled brother, Nick (Benny Safdie).  When it goes wrong and Nick is jailed, Connie seeks to break him out (but it turns out he’s been relocated to a hospital after getting beaten up in a prison fight).  Thus begins a rather epic night that sees Connie travel from the bail bondsman’s office to the hospital and points beyond (a closed amusement park) as his plans fall apart.  The soundtrack by Oneohtrix Point Never (pulsating electronic music) really makes the film and gives it a druggy overtone that isn’t contradicted by the action we see (and the film’s visual sense).  Pattinson inhabits the character well and pretty much disappears into it (esp. after his hair is bleached).  The desperation onscreen (punctuated by sudden jolts of violence) is pretty palpable.  So, the film might give viewers a rush of sorts. There is also some pretty black comedy afoot (possibly in bad taste).  But when things suddenly ground to a halt 100 minutes later, I guess I was left wondering what the point of it all was.