Good Time

Ein kinetischer Sozialthriller, der von Anfang an einen überhasteten Eindruck macht, wobei die lobotomisierten Wendungen ihm auch nicht allzu sehr helfen, nicht einmal der sympathische, jedoch unempfindlich verwendete analoge 80er Jahre Höllen-Soundtrack von Oneohtrix Point Never. Pattinson liefert hier die beste Leistung seiner Karriere ab, aber seien wir doch ehrlich, sein Charakter ist so sehr äußerlich, dass dies nicht allzu mühsam ist. (27.05.2017)

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. (28.12.2017)

Robert Pattinson's performance pleasantly shocked me in such a way that for a moment I didn't recognize any of his previous roles. Additionally, when the story grabbed me so tightly that I couldn't even breathe for the first twenty minutes, I began to hope that the rumors about Drive on an acid trip would at least be partially fulfilled, but these remained only promises. Sometime in the third act, the plot and development stagnated so suddenly and nonsensically that I suspected at times that the creators only seriously wrote the first act. Wasted potential and a race to deny clichés as much as possible, which ultimately trips up all the creators. (13.12.2017)

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% (17.07.2017)

An overnight odyssey from nowhere to nowhere, with a way too slow course of events and the behavior of characters that is simply stupid even if we take into account that the movie takes place in a world of a pothead bottom of society, where you hardly come across anyone who is enlightened by intelligence. There´s no doubt about it. But the Safdie brothers don't give you any slightest space to realize it. From the very beginning, they grab your neck by a raw forward racing straightforward pace, that I have never seen, which goes hand in hand with the absorbing hypnotic atmosphere and performance of Pattinson, which will engage your full attention. But… But in the middle of the movie it hits the brake (which is justified), but then it never hits the pedal again. Also because the focus of the movie partly switches to another new character. And so suddenly, sadly, we have enough time to get over the captivating ecstasy of the first half and realize the problems I mentioned at the beginning, which will start to annoy you. And they will annoy you a lot. Despite all this, you can still enjoy it. That´s for sure. Pattinson is still brilliant, a few scenes have the magic of the first half, and the synthetic rumbling soundtrack from Oneohtrix Point Never wouldn't make you bored even in a movie twice that long. But you inevitably realize that you are watching a once in a decade opportunity which was simply wasted, even though the movie has the potential and at the beginning it seemed that it could have become a movie of a decade. (22.09.2017)