Good Time

The weirdest movie this year, where the five stars around here are a mystery to me. The film has very off-putting to the point of being cheesy visuals, I found the ubiquitous Robert Pattinson very unlikeable to the point of being sleazy, I didn't find the story interesting at all and although the script is unpredictable it is far from intelligent. I considered turning it off halfway through, but eventually finished the film with difficulty. It didn't sit well with me. The kind of film where nothing of substance happens at all whether it's a twist, action or violence, everything is absent. 40%. (11/06/2017)

This movie is definitively one of the most interesting ones of 2017. The dynamic musical undertone takes turns with a rather alternative method of transferring the script to the film screen. Alternative in the sense that everything in the film is quite raw, sometimes even disgusting. And Robert Pattinson did a great job portraying a character who is drowning in a quagmire of this human depravity. His behavior just makes no sense at all. (12/27/2017)

A kinetic social thriller that feels burnt out from the first shot and isn’t helped much by the lobotomized twists, or even the likable but insensitively used 80s analogue hell soundtrack from Oneohtrix Point Never. Pattinson gives the best performance of his career - but let's face it, his character is so external that he doesn't have to do all that much work. (05/27/2017)

Good Time is a much grittier and sweatier bit of neo(n)-noir than Drive, in terms of both style and digressive narrative. Instead of a straightforward journey from point A to point B, it offers unnecessary detours and dead ends. Good Time comes close to being a pure genre movie only during the opening bank heist, after which everything goes downhill in a way that other heist movies don't prepare you for. Connie doesn’t have a plan. He improvises based on who/what gets in his way. One half-baked (and sometimes very funny due to its idiocy) decision is followed by another. The film also gives the impression that it was made “on the fly”, but it holds together thanks to good rhythmic structure (alternating between quiet scenes without music and dynamic passages) and recurring motifs (Connie is convinced that he was a dog in a previous life, which explains why he and a four-legged friend get along so well later). Furthermore, the protagonist’s efforts to save his brother from going to prison are used systematically to portray the life of the New York underclass, and this portrait of people with no money, no ambition and no hope for a better future, whose drinking and drug use are occasionally supplemented with police brutality, is thus as important as the melodramatic story of self-destructive brotherly love (which makes the film reminiscent of early-period Scorsese). Together with an edgy, highly visceral thriller (shot almost exclusively in close-ups without establishing shots), we get a social drama in neon colours and with electronic music (which, apart from arcade video games, reminded me of the first Terminator) in one surprisingly compact package. What is certain is that you will not experience a similarly unpredictable and comparably intense film in the cinema any time soon. 85% (07/17/2017)

The film bursts with colors in every shot, all wrapped in a psychedelic filter that adds another significant dose of uniqueness to an already unconventional approach. Such filmmaking is truly rare nowadays. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have been interested in it otherwise, but everyone praised Pattinson's performance in the lead role, claiming he did so with considerable skill. So, I dedicated my time to it. From my perspective, he functions as the most crucial element of the film, holding all aspects together. Without him, the film would have fallen apart like a Lego set. This isn’t to criticize the creators; some story sequences genuinely impressed me with their originality. However, in the end, it didn’t impact me as much as it might have seemed on paper. In terms of filmmaking and acting, it’s a solid piece of craftsmanship deserving of admiration. If the creators aim higher in the future (and I believe they will succeed one day), they should focus more on refining the main plotline next time. We’ll see what their next project, Uncut Gems with Sandler, brings. I give Good Time 68%. (09/28/2019)