Good Time [112 points / 11 votes]
"So often the default metaphor for big budget Hollywood action/adventure cinema has been a rollercoaster. And if you’re speaking in terms of visceral sensation, that’s fair.
"But what metaphor does that leave for the Safdies’ Good Time, as jarring and kinetic an experience as one could have on a dozen emotional Tilt-A-Whirls? That live-wire menace is the foundation that the film is built on, but there’s no way of knowing where things are going to go. No matter how many times you watch it, Connie’s frazzled charm and increasingly more uncertain certainty leaves a viewer tangled up in knots.
"That the proceedings end up in an actual amusement park seems perfectly natural, whether through internal, speedy nightmare logic or just a case of game recognizing game. But even with that flourish, the knife turns and things escalate further as we witness what is simply one of the cruelest things ever done to a bystander character, as Barkhad Abdi’s night watchman character gets dosed with enough hallucinogens to know that he’s never going to be all right again.
"That isn’t meant as moralizing- merely an observation that there is no logical way for anyone to think of Connie as a positive influence on any situation. He’s loyal, but he’s got that destructive stealth macho bullshit in the driver’s seat for so long that he can’t help but be destructive to everyone around him. Two moments in the film help puncture his seal, and they provide the notes of transcendence that make the shifts and sinking turns bearable, even without the necessary antacid/benzo combo that the film’s emotional itinerary demands- the final shot, of course, and the moment in the bail bonds place where Connie has to backburner himself while Jennifer Jason Leigh tends to business.
"To scream 'I’m trying to be a helpful person' and mean it. That’s Good Time in a glorious, gripping nutshell." ~ Jason Shawhan
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