Good Time

The American heist movie enjoyed something of a resurgence in 2017 with the releases of LOGAN LUCKY, BABY DRIVER and GOOD TIME. While the first two of these films are enjoyable, comedic, populist entertainments, the Safdie brothers’ movie is, by contrast, a trickier, more troubling and ultimately more satisfying thing: a breathlessly paced thriller centered on an unlikable protagonist . . . that continually challenges viewers by making disturbing asides about racism in contemporary America.

Good Time is propulsion at all costs. Pattinson is the unstoppable white male. The system supports him without fault, and everything he does can and ultimately will be forgiven in time. We see him as a sleazeball, a racist, a total cockroach, and we know that he’ll be given every chance to succeed again and again and again. He has the benefit of the doubt. The fact that the Safdies understand this and wring it for all its worth is one of the most bold and honest moves in all of movies this year.

Good Time, blanked by the Cannes jury and spruned by late-summer audiences, has filmmaking chops that shame most of this fall’s award contenders. The Safdies’ typically intrepid sound design amplifies narrative tension while also evoking psychological turmoil that the brilliant performers must occasionally suppress. The cinematography shifts among black light, neons, and sooty nocturnes at no cost to visual coherence.