GOOD TIME

US, 2017, 101 minutes, Colour.

Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdi, Talia Webster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Barkhad Abdi, Peter Verby, Rose Gregorio, Eric Paykert.
Directed by Benny Safdi, Josh Safdi.

The title of the film is Good Time, it might be described as Hard Going.

This is the New York streets and many commentators have remembered Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film Mean Streets, the characters who lived there, young characters, difficult pasts, uncertain futures.

The film opens by the audience introducing us to one of two brothers, Nick (played by the co-director, Benny Safdie). He is rather slow-witted, is in a session with a sympathetic therapist who is showing him cards, making him do word association games but with comparatively little success except the revelation that he had thrown a pan at his grandmother. Before anything further can happen, his brother, Connie (a very effective and different Robert Pattinson) intrudes into the office, making demands on the therapist, taking his brother to exclamations of “shame� from the therapist.

Connie is desperate to help his brother. But why he would choose to get guns and masks and the both of them go into a bank for robbery, handing over a note, writing directions and then writing back, demanding even more money and making their escape but seemingly unaware that there would be a dye in the money bag that would cause the car to crash and their being covered with red paint. Connie has to hide the money, get rid of the paint but his plan is thwarted when police come after them and Nick runs away, only to be arrested, taken to a police station, put in a cell.

What is Connie to do? Disguise himself and his hair? Certainly. Recover some of the money? Go to a bail bondsman and make very impatient demands on him to try to organise Nick’s immediate release. He also goes to his girlfriend, Corey (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and wants to use her credit card to get the extra $10,000 for the bail. Her mother has shrewdly stopped the car and.

Connie then attempts to recover Nick but ends up, mistakenly, with a drug dealer, Ray. This leads to a dramatic flashback on Ray’s part, falling foul a taxi driver and leaping from the car, injuring himself. Then a connection with the drug dealer and a young girl, Connie then trying to hide what remains of the money in a theme park.

Again, in these mean streets, with characters so very limited in mental ability, things go badly again, he and the dealer bashing the security guard, disguising themselves in his coat and, taking his car, going to his apartment to arrange for the sale of some drugs.

These characters are ill-fated. Police chases, falls from buildings, inept attempts at rescue…
A final close-up of Connie. What future? But some hope with Nick as the therapist introduces him to group work, some men and women who are introduced to a psychological game, asking, if they identify with the theme presented to them, they cross the floor. This activates their minds, even Nick’s so that…

1. Acclaim for the film? A 21st-century Mean Streets?

2. The New York settings, the streets, the initial therapy, the bank, the interiors, the police precincts, jail, hospitals, taxis, Adventureland? The final therapy session? The many overhead views of New York City at night, the traffic?

3. The visual style, night and day, lighting, exteriors, interiors? The use of close-ups? The musical score?

4. Nick, slow-witted, with the therapist, the therapist and the tests, the questions, his hesitations, Nick and the answers, the tone? The revelation about throwing the pan and his grandmother? Connie entering, his rough behaviour to the therapist, the therapist telling him “shame�?

5. Connie and Nick, the relationship, the grandmother? The need for money? Going to the bank, the masks, the teller, the initial money, wanting more, communicating by writing notes, their escape, running? Pulling off the masks? In the car, the getaway man? The explosion in the bag, the red paint? Going to the store, the toilet, hiding the money, washing off the red? Connie later returning and recovering the money? Their walking the street, the police, Nick running, apprehended? His going through the glass door?

6. Connie, his relationship with Corey, visiting her, the promise of the holiday together, the dependence on her mother? The issue of the money, to pay the bail? Going to the bondsman, his office, Connie putting on the pressure, argumentative? The issue of the card, its being denied? Corey ringing her mother, her mother cancelling the card?

7. Connie recovering the money from the store, wanting to pay the bondsman? Not having enough money, is plans?

8. Nick, with the police, jail, in the cell, the clash? Connie going to rescue him? Picking up Ray instead, the mistake? The escape? The taxi, Ray and his story in the taxi, the driver, jumping out? The dealer, the girl, going to Adventureland? To store the money? The bottle with the drugs?

9. The drugs, in the bottle, getting over the fence, Ray and his disabilities, his face? The security guard, the confrontation, bashing him? Search of Adventureland, taking the uniforms, disguised as security, the police, the ambulance, taking the security guard away? The girl and the police?

10. The security guard’s apartment, very pleasant, Ray and his drinking, Connie and his harsh stands, the dog and the threats, the phone call to the dealer, waiting for him to arrive? The police?

11. Connie, leaving, being chased by the police, running and arrested?

12. Ray, going on the ledge, falling to his death?

13. The close-up of Connie, his future? The

14. Nick, in therapy, with the group, the device of the individuals making decisions and crossing the room? Nick and his participation?

15. How much sympathy for the characters? How ineffectual the characters?