I love how this movie starts! First, we hear pulsating electronics, and then we see a wide helicopter snapshot of a typical American city skyscraper and traffic scene that literally begins every second action of the past 25 years. Scale is rapidly diminishing and by framing we approach the windows of one of the buildings. The next shot is a large plan on the face of mentally retarded Nick (played brilliantly by the co-director and filmmaker Benny Safdis), who seems to be locked in his own world, and his psychiatrist explains his delicate position. The camera slowly retracts and we see more of his face, and the music dies. There is a slow and monotonous four-minute conversation between Nick and the psychiatrist, from which we get a clear idea of Nick's emotionality and insight. The session was abruptly interrupted by his brother Connie's invasion (Robert Pattinson), which ripped Nick out of his opportunity for adequate existence and brought him into his own rut. The shooting plans are very close, and the rhythm of the film changes three times in five minutes. This does not indicate grossness. It shows adequate handling of the material and great liveliness. We clearly understand that we are not going to watch a film of cardboard boxes but of real and cracked human beings. The fresh breath is felt, all the senses are sharpened, and we have not seen anything yet in the movie.
"Good Time" is one of the movies that infuses adrenaline and recalls why modern cinema will not disappear. It is amazing what dynamics, rhythm and tension have been achieved by the Safdi brothers. I remembered the great first episode of "The Night Of", which also tracked the events of a single evening. I like the detailed description of the desperate situation of the characters, this kind of hyperrealism actually leads to a deeper social cinema than what we are used to associating with the word. I think you said it one night. Instead of the director taking the role of a teacher and hitting you with a pointer on the head, he just tells a good story of a living hero. I prefer to watch alive stories of non-specific characters who reach a certain truth in their lives or, on the contrary, fail to reach because of various factors - internal and external. I think the second example is in full force for Good Time characters, especially Connie. One would hardly imagine how an unrealistic and utterly unpretentious black action tragedy / comedy? in fact, he can tell you more about human nature, the types of people, the ambiguous relationship between them and the environment in which they operate from an entirely social festival film such as "I, Daniel Blake" by Ken Loach (winner of "Golden Palm" 2016). With a few small and natural details from the Safdis brothers, we get an idea of so many things. Dynamics and the complicated relationship between Connie and Nick. How Connie protects his brother and truly loves him, and at the same time he uses it and hurts him terribly. How quickly and accurately he responds to the difficulties that have arisen. How did he get a reflex to get out of shit because of his constant involvement in absurd situations. How little he cares about the surrounding environment and people. A purposeful and even professional insanity, in which there is some inner logic, but leads to where? And rather, is it himself guilty or the environment has made him such. I think the influence of both of them is great. Robert Pattinson is fantastic. It is quite a bit surprising to be surprised after two films with Cronenberg, the great "The Rover" and the chilling "The Childhood of a Leader," but Kony is actually one of the most vibrant characters I've ever seen on the screen for quite some time . I like how bored it is, how easy it is to deal with the situation, a charismatic person growing up in the street. Pattinson had mentioned that he had drawn inspiration from the documentary "One Year in a Life of Crime" (1989), which, with the help of a hidden camera, puts you into the world of retail thieves and can easily break your heart.
"Good Time" captures exactly this insight into the tragic fate, and under the tragic sense I really mean all the ridiculous Shakespeare weight and stormy turning of the circumstances that at one point they are making on a road you did not expect. Even worse - the road is inevitable and unique. The honesty of the final, captured in the stunned look of Connie, has a tremendous impact and is probably my favorite shot this year. Pattinson is no longer just a good actor. It is a rare value. Something that I really like in this role is the lack of efficiency. This is not the typical role for awards in which the actor makes a monster transformation to be different. On the contrary, there is a real embarrassment of any acting. An instinctive and credible fusion with the hero. This also applies to the whole movie. I do not see anything purely done, just to be cool and to like the viewers. "Good Time" hides an aestheticized sternness that has relief, and lately it seems more and more appealing to me. That's why the grain of the image helps - the movie is shot on tape. This styling somewhat reminds me of Refn's debut, "Pusher," which literally overturns the Danish cinema of the 90's and raises its young creator into a cult. "Good Time" is part of a new wave that captures the spirit of time and the main responsible are the company A24, which in recent years created "American Honey", "Spring Breakers", "A Ghost Story", "The Lobster" and a whole list of life-filled stories without which I do not think how we would keep our hope for the future of cinema. But to go back to Good Time, I liked how clichés were avoided by the robbery, how many were the masks and the scattering of the paint from the money, the amusement park and the madness with people falling from the edge of the railing while fleeing the police. There is a level of suspicious extravagance that somewhat undermines my realism, but at another point I say, "what the hell - these type of things happen in life too right?" I felt it in the confusion at the hospital and with the fall that I was talking about earlier. I forgot to pay attention to the awesome Wales Webster, like Little Crystal and Jennifer Jason Lee, who was knocked out by the quirky genius. "Good Time" ends with the great song of Oneohtrix Point Never Iggy Pop. I think the heart of the movie is sung in the following five lines of it:
Every day i think about untwisting and untangling these strings I'm in
And to lead a pure life
I look ahead at a clear sky
It's not gonna get there
But it's a nice dream, it's a nice dream
Oneohtrix Point Never won the Cannes Award for the Best Soundtrack Absolutely Deserved. You know my electronics is a weak spot, but Lopatin's music is objectively magnificent. All of her adrenaline gives so many vivid shots to "Good Time," which fit perfectly into the characters' life and their quirky trick. The final work with Iggy Pop - "The Pure and the Damned" comes as a resolute counterpoint and awareness of all the madness that can not go on. Beautiful and pretty sad. But again not one-sided. I think there is some optimism at the end. Roughly speaking, even some kind of justice. With understanding and humanity, Nick's psychiatrist (played great by Peter Verbie) brings him into a social group with other mentally retarded, and the teacher says, "You choose your truth." Whether?
Image source: 1, 2
