GOOD TIME B
USA (101 mi) 2017
‘Scope d: Josh and Ben Safdie
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
Ain’t gonna get there
But it’s a nice dream,
it’s a nice dream
A thoroughly entertaining romp through the criminal
underworld of New York City, like a race to hell, most all of it expressed
through hyperkinetic surface detail, propelled by a mesmerizing techno score
written by Oneohtrix Point Never (Daniel Lopatin), reminiscent of John
Carpenter’s synthesized score in Escape
from New York (1981), as viewers are jettisoned through what feels like a laceratingly
frenetic, amped up adrenal race through a neon-lit city landscape. The Safdie brothers have spent a decade
making low-budget movies on the streets of New York, perhaps defined by gritty urban
dramas with lost souls on the edge that are exclusively male and testosterone
driven, troubled characters reflected by the constantly moving, anxiety-ridden
camerawork from Sean Price Williams, all of which suggests a visit through the
heartland of a world of trouble. Similar
films that come to mind are John Schlesinger’s MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969), William
Friedkin’s THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971), Sidney Lumet’s Dog
Day Afternoon (1975), Martin Scorsese’s Mean
Streets (1973) and Taxi
Driver (1976), all of which examine that tenuous line between good and
evil, morality and criminality, where often they feel intertwined. Almost unnoticed is an appearance by Peter
Verby, easily mistaken as a David Cronenberg look-alike, playing an optimistic
therapist in a mental health institution conducting a psychiatric interview
with a confused, mentally challenged patient, Nick Niklas (Ben Safdie). Out of nowhere, his brother Constantine
“Connie” Niklas (Robert Pattinson) barges in and whisks his younger brother
away to safety. Connie is what you would
call a con man, a man with no moral conscience, a wise guy continually mixed up
in petty crime, whose mind is constantly trying to beat the system, endlessly
scheming how to get money, the quicker the better, thinking nothing of using
others in the process, including his brother, always in a state of overriding desperation,
having spent a lifetime making bad choices.
Lugging his brother around (not afraid to exploit him), a gentle-giant
Lennie character from Of Mice and Men,
Nick often gets mixed up in Connie’s hare-brained schemes, paying the price for
his brother’s recklessness. Almost
immediately the two are seen wearing dark-skinned masks in a botched bank
robbery, but rather than accept what’s in the teller’s drawer they want more,
sending her behind closed doors where they impatiently wait, with viewers
thinking she may never return until after the cops show up, but she brings what
they ask for, seemingly going off without a hitch, but no sooner are they starting
to feel euphoric afterwards but a red dye explosion takes place in the honey
bag, like tear gas, instead coating them in a thick red cake, immediately
retreating into a public rest room to wipe it off, but once back on the street
they are identified as suspects by a patrolling police car, with Nick running away
in panic. The two go racing through the
streets of New York, with Connie escaping, but Nick hurls his body through a
plate glass window, suffering serious injuries, where he’s held by police, Good Time clip - “Get back here” YouTube
(1:37).
No sooner are we introduced to these two oddly matched brothers
but they’re already mixed up in serious trouble. Connie goes into rescue mode, first visiting
a bail bondsman to get his brother out of jail, handing him the dye-tainted
stolen money, but it’s not enough, as he needs $10,000 more. Next he visits his lonely and dimwitted girlfriend
Corey, none other Jennifer Jason Leigh, an ex-addict who’s already been convinced
they are going on a trip together, where she’s exploring exotic vacation spots
on her iPad while Connie’s busily explaining the situation with his incarcerated
brother. Everything happening is veering
out of control, which is the central core of the film, plunging headfirst into
more turmoil, always racing against the clock, failing to meet self-imposed
deadlines, with heavy consequences continuously lurking over his
shoulders. Corey’s mother immediately
suspects something is up, as this guy is bad news, warning her daughter not to
leave with him, as he’s obviously manipulating her for her credit card, but
Corey’s mother understands who she’s dealing with and stops payment on the
card, thwarting his little plan, but in the process Connie learns his brother
is not in jail but in a hospital. Just
winging it, apparently, Connie visits the hospital, exploring the possibilities,
enticing various workers for information, eventually finding a policeman
stationed outside a hospital room, waiting for him to leave his station and
take a break, then wheeling the comatose and heavily bandaged patient out in a wheelchair,
hopping inside a transport vehicle for the disabled, claiming some sort of
mix-up when all others have been delivered, asking to be dropped off just a
block or two away, then working back to the last patient dropped off,
convincing an elderly Jamaican woman that he’s been locked out of his house,
needing to make a call for help, but it will be hours before they get off work
to come pick him up. This is standard
operational procedure for Connie, who never lets up, but relentlessly cons his
way through every last detail, even before he can figure things out. The
older woman goes to sleep, leaving him with her 16-year old granddaughter
Crystal (Taliah Webster, a revelation of laid-back indifference and sparked
curiosity) in front of the TV. Finding
peroxide in the bathroom, Connie decides to dye his hair blond, which surprises
Crystal, but when Connie’s face appears on TV as a wanted criminal on the
loose, he grabs her in his arms and starts kissing her before moving to the
bedroom for a quickie. As if there
weren’t already enough problems, screams from the other room alert Connie to
soon discover that he’s rescued the wrong patient, Ray (Buddy Duress), who’s
freaked to find himself in somebody else’s house, needing drugs for the pain,
as his face is badly injured. A brief
flashback sequence explains his plight, a nonstop monologue, Good Time flashback scene
(Ray's story) (3:55), where we learn he’s just as much of a low-life
hustler as Connie.
Pitting two losers together is a stroke of bad luck, each
outdoing one another in criminal ineptitude, devising a plan for quick cash, as
before Ray got arrested, he was hiding inside a broken-down amusement park
called Adventureland, stashing several thousand dollars and a bottle of liquid
LSD, worth a fortune in individual hits.
Returning to the scene of the crime, Connie convinces Crystal to let him
drive her grandmother’s car as they go out on a joyride, leaving Crystal to
stand watch while the two stumbling outlaws search in the dark for the lost
treasure, only to be accosted by a security guard, with Connie beating the man
unconscious, destroying the security tape at his work station, then switching
uniforms, pretending he’s security, allowing the arriving police to think the
injured man is the prowler, with Ray rinsing his mouth with the liquid acid
just for good measure, so if he wakes up he’ll be completely disoriented. This little scheme raises questions, as it
cynically exploits race in ways society takes for granted, blaming blacks for
crimes committed by whites. Connie is
white, while the beaten suspect is black, making it more likely police ask no
questions, as this fits their racial profile, with police routinely arresting
suspicious blacks, never questioning whites.
This plays out further when Crystal is arrested, with Connie watching it
all from a distance, refusing to lift a finger to get her off the hook. Whether intentional or not, this leaves the
impression blacks are always to blame when it comes to urban crime, at least in
the eyes of the cops, while white perpetrators get off scot free. This is significant, as it fits a familiar
stereotypical pattern that plays out in popular culture, like cop shows on American
TV, where blacks are routinely cast to play the criminal element. The question remains if the Safdie’s are
smart enough to make this issue a comical subversive take, a play on words, so
to speak, or if they’re just like everybody else, living in a world of white
privilege. This has become something of
a dividing factor on this film, exploiting people along color lines, which
would include an overly vulvnerable dark-skinned immigrant community as
well. But in a flash they’re gone, Good Time (2017) / Leaving the park
YouTube (2:14), without the cash, which they couldn’t find, but with the bottle
of acid, returning to the apartment of the security guard, with Ray calling his
dealer for instructions. With no rest
for the wicked, there is such a rush of adrenaline that there is no time to
think in this film, as it’s all a mad rush to a doomsday scenario, accelerated
by the frantic decisions being made, with nonstop chatter getting in the way,
becoming an electrifying, high-voltage thriller with uncaptured criminals on
the loose, each catapulted into a metaphoric brick wall that stands for their
future, an inevitable obstacle that is insurmountable, yet they race towards it
anyway. This kind of nihilistic vision
is not unique, but the catastrophic pace accelerating headlong into the abyss
is a kind of freewheeling assault of utter recklessness, with the inevitable
outcome predictable. Nonetheless, the Safdie’s
do add a touch of elegance to the finale, with Connie ultimately caught like a
rat in a maze, as viewed from an upper level high-rise vantage point, with Ray
equally as doomed. Nick, on the other
hand, at least has a future, however bleak, confined to an institution,
separated from family and friends, joining a class of similarly disabled students,
no longer alone, but part of a collective, where they’re all asked to join in
if they’ve had similar experiences, like “Cross the room if you’ve ever been
blamed for something you didn’t do,” with aging icon Iggy Pop singing an
anthem for the damned over the closing credits, Oneohtrix Point Never - The
Pure and the Damned (Official Video) ft ... YouTube (4:41).
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