Like Connie, they thrive on their wits and endless inventiveness-the thrill comes in marveling at how far it can take them.
The Safdies and Pattinson don’t need any of that. Good Time features no shootouts or car chases-there isn’t a single explosion in the whole film. Following their star’s lead, the filmmakers deliver a jet-fueled variation on their usual intricate exploration of New York’s marginalized citizens. As Connie, Pattinson is shockingly vital and present, unabashedly throwing himself into any situation. Connie escapes, determined to get his brother out of jail-either through bail money or other means. Shaken and trying not to panic, Connie and Nick abandon their getaway car, quickly raising the suspicion of some nearby cops, who chase down Nick. A paint bomb goes off in their bag, staining the money and the criminals’ clothes. They make off with thousands of dollars, but what they don’t realize is that they live in the real world, not a movie. Impulsively, Connie strong-arms Nick into helping him rob a bank. The financially strapped character lives in Queens, unhappy that his mentally challenged brother Nick (Benny Safdie) is cooped up in a facility that, Connie believes, doesn’t do enough to help him. Connie is played by Robert Pattinson in a performance so locked-in from the first second that it shoots off an electric spark from the actor to the audience: Just sit back, he seems to be telling us. But don’t underestimate Connie: Several of the people who cross his path make that mistake, and he gets the better of them every time. The hero of Good Time is one of the canniest individuals in recent cinema, which might seem like an odd thing to say about a scummy lowlife who screws up a bank heist in the film’s opening reels. Stars: Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Buddy Duress, Peter Verby, Barkhad Abdi, Taliah Webster He may be onto something, or he may be pulling everything out of his ass-regardless, we’ve always known Sandler’s had it in him. Just before a game, Howard reveals to Garnett his grand plan for a big payday, explaining that Garnett gets it, right? That guys like them are keyed into something greater, working on a higher wavelength than most-that this is how they win.
It’s all undoubtedly stressful-really relentlessly, achingly stressful-but the Safdies, on their sixth film, seem to thrive in anxiety, capturing the inertia of Howard’s life, and of the innumerable lives colliding with his, in all of its full-bodied beauty.
Then Demany happens to bring Kevin Garnett (as himself, keyed so completely into the Safdie brothers’ tone) into the shop on the same day the opal arrives, inspiring a once-in-a-lifetime bet for Howard-the kind that’ll square him with Aron and then some-as well as a host of new crap to get straight. Except his wife’s (Idina Menzel, pristinely jaded) obviously sick of his shit, and meanwhile he’s got a special delivery coming from Africa: a black opal, the stone we got to know intimately in the film’s first scene, which Howard estimates is worth millions. Still, Howard has other risks to balance-his payroll’s comprised of Demany (Lakeith Stanfield), a finder of both clients and product, and Julia (Julia Fox, an unexpected beacon amidst the storm in her first feature role), a clerk with whom Howard’s carrying on an affair, “keeping” her comfortable in his New York apartment. The proprietor of an exclusive shop in New York’s diamond district, Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) does well for himself and his family, though he can’t help but gamble compulsively, owing his brother-in-law Aron (Eric Bogosian, malevolently slimy) a substantial amount. Stars: Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Eric Bogosian
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