An essay on the film "Good Time", and the subsequent notes it take to build

     

    Good Time is an American crime drama from New York natives Joshua and Ben Safdie. Starring Robert Pattinson as Connie Nikas and Ben Safdie as his brother Nick Nikas, the film tells the tale of a high paced odyssey as Connie stumbles through the city of New York. The film starts off introducing Nick as a developmentally disabled man with a difficult relationship with his brother. Connie Nikas, cleverly named Connie, holds a name true to his nature as a man who cons his way through a series of toxic interactions with almost every character in the film. Following a bank robbery, Nick is arrested and sent to Rikers Island where his disorder gets in the way of safe prison functioning. In a race against time, Connie must acquire 10,000$ to post bond for his brother and rescue him from the bowels of Rikers Island. This film is an excellent exercise in twisted love, the destruction of the characters life, and a emphasis on intimate relations within ones own life. Featuring popping cinematography that gives the film a grimy, but vibrant look into the fringes of New York City, with a score by Oneohtrix Point Never, Good Time features top notch filmmaking on almost every front. 

Opening the film up with a scene taking place in a developmental disorder clinic, we find Nick speaking with a psychiatrist simply named Peter (Peter Verby). The doctor asks Nick a series of questions that highlight his mental deficits, and shed light on some of his past interactions with his family.

“Scissors and a pan” – Peter

“You can hurt yourself with both” – Nick

“Salt and water” – Peter

“The Beach” – Nick

During this intimate session with the doctor, following his association with salt and water, we are treated to a steady close up of Nick as a tear silently falls down his face. Holding the shot for an extended period of time, we get a closer look into Nicks conflicted nature of his situation and a focus on a beach that triggers an intense emotional response. Nick embellishes on the scissor and pan association, of which he goes on to elaborate an altercation between him and his grandma. Following a dispute between the two, Nick speaks on how he hurled a pot at his grandmother’s head when she began to criticize him. Mid explanation Connie barges him and rips him out of the doctor’s office questioning whether or not this is who Nick thinks he is. Walking down the hallway we see the Connie consoling Nick and building him up, a display of the bond between the brothers, and emphasizing Connie’s desire for Nick to be “normal.” The film sets up the focus on hallway shots and the subtle emotions that come during a self reflective walk. With these quiet and intimate walking shorts we get a look into the psyche of the characters, specifically that of Connie. The brothers leave the clinic and proceed to rob a bank. Here we get an insight into Connie's destructive nature and his desire for doing the most for his brother, but in one of the worst possible ways. During the bank robbery, Connie has the clerk take out money from a safe in which she claims is all the money she has access to. However, this is not enough money and Connie urges the clerk to go get more money. Connie is not satisfied, and his desire for more ultimately leads to his life in shambles. The clerk returns with the money, and the brothers exit the building. Nick is distressed with his mask and attempts to remove it following the robbery. The pair get to an alley and proceed to change clothes. Nick has a difficult time taking off his mask and asked Connie for help. Here we see the relationship between the two brothers and how Connie truly wants Nick to gain more independence. Connie tells Nick

“You’re fucking incredible. You’re incredible, do you understand. I’m serious; you think I could’ve done that without you standing next to me being strong.” – Connie

This is an attempt to build up Nicks self esteem, but also serves as his brothers way of keeping his mind on their escape, and begins to shed light on Connie’s penchant for using others to benefit his own desire. This is a key component of the film, Connie has been established of a loving and caring figure towards his brother, but also has begun a chain of events that display him as a con man, a manipulator of others for his own desire, and the destruction that follows using others for ill gotten gains. The duo gets into the getaway car and we are introduced into clear destruction of others in the name of Connie’s greater good. Because Connie wanted more money from the clerk, in her going back into the bank to get more money, it becomes clear that this is where the clerk stuck a red smoke marker into their bag full of cash. This smoke marker is a safety precaution that the bank uses to stop robbers in their pursuit of money. The marker in the bag is set off in the getaway car and Nick opens the bag to look at all the money. The car is filled with red smoke and subsequently crashes. The brothers have been visually marked as red, a color most heavily associated with evil. The driver of the car crashes the car and the two brothers escape. As a direct result of Connie’s use of others, we are opened to Connie indirectly causing harm to others, in this case the driver. The  brothers exit the vehicle and are eventually in a foot race with the cops. Running far ahead of Nick, Connie finds himself able to escape, but at the cost of losing Nick to the police. Connie struggles with putting others before himself, even when it comes to the person he loves most. Nick is sent to Rikers Island as the credits roll through a series of shots that highlight the toxicity of the prison, and Nick’s inability to function as an average human being. There is chaos in the scenes involving the prison, and Nick, upon arrival, is almost immediately subjected to cruelty and gets lumped in with a bunch of inmates fighting which is broken up by a large amount of pepper spray. While this is all going on, the film uses cross cutting to highlight Connie’s return to the money, creating a juxtaposition one brothers suffering with the others personal motives for financial gain, his benefit. With the opening credits still rolling, we see Nick’s first interaction with his grandmother over the phone. 

“That money was for us, he was gonna buy me a farm and we were gonna live in the woods and I was gonna be able to do whatever I wanted okay. YOU DON’T LOVE ME. HE LOVES ME. CONNIE LOVES ME. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT LOVE IS. That was for us, he did it for us” – Nick

In this moment we have a very George and Lenny scene, Nick has a simple desire, a beach promised to him by Connie and Nick’s strong desire and belief that Connie wants what is best for him. In an altercation with another inmate, furthering Nick’s indirect pain caused by Connie, Nick is brutally beaten while in prison. 

The following scene is another hallway shot in which Connie is staring emptily at the camera as a long take follows him down the hall. Here we meet Connie’s girlfriend Corey Ellman (Jennifer Jason Leigh), whom Connie is essentially using. Connie only had half of the money needed for a bail bond, as the majority of his money was stained by the red smoke paint, and he needs another 10,000$ to post bail and get his brother out of jail. Corey argues with her mom as her mother can see Connie for what he really is, a con man. Using his girlfriend for money, Connie lies and tells her she only needs 3,000$ instead of the ten, and once again we see his use of others for his own personal gain with little thought for the people he uses.














ESSAY NOTES I WROTE TO WRITE THE ESSAY

 Good Time

The film opens with a sweeping shot into a building where nick and a teacher are working on basic questions and understanding. 

“don’t count your chickens before they hatch, what does that mean to you”-doctor

Nick responds to the teacher writing down what he says in response to the question. He starts to get upset when he sees him writing about something related to him

“it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease”

Word association “cat and mouse” 

“scissors and a cooking pan” – doctor

“you can hurt yourself with both”-nick

“Salt and water”  “the beach”

Nick begins to cry in a long shot of him looking at the floor

Nick goes on to talk about the words pot and pan and how he associates them with hurt. Nick talks about throwing the pan at his grandma when she criticizes him. Nick begins to cry intensely until his brother barges him and gives the teacher grief and tells nick that he doesn’t need to be here in a place like this. Connie is his name

“is that what you think you are?”- connie 

“Fuck Grandma nicky, its just you and me” they hold each other in the elevator

The scene following the title card cuts to two men wearing a mask with intentions of robbing the bank theyre in. They look like theyre disguised as road workers. The woman follows the orders on the notecard they hand her and after giving them the money. She tells them shes given them all the money and connie writes to her to go get more money. This is in theory what fucks him over. He gets greedy and wants more money and the second helping of money is what gets the dye bombs stuck in the bag

High tension music begins to play. Electronic beat the rings inwardly and slides over synth like guitar riffs

They leave the building to escape and nick insists on taking off the mask. Connie helps nick take off the match and walks him through that process so he can do it on his own. Connie is teaching him to stand for himself

“Your fucking incredible. Youre incredible, do you understand. Im serious,  You think I could’ve done that without you standing next to me being strong.”

Connie grounds nick in reality and helps build him up. Not only does this benefit him as a person, but it keeps him in the zone for this bank robbery.

Nick has a blank stare as he looks into the distance in the getaway car. In the car connie smiles and looks proud as he believes he just pulled off the perfect robbery. Connie asks nick if he wants to hold the money, a ringing sounds and the car fills with red smoke and the boys are covered in colored smoke. The car crashes and the two jump out of the car to get away on foot. Connie has ruined the life of his getaway driver at this point. He pulls his brother out of the car who is extremely distressed and tries to pull him into the present. Nick thinks hes going to be sick and connie ensures him he will be fine.

Connie spews out lies and motivation in the dunkin donuts bathroom they just ran into. The store clerk is angry and connie is holding them at bay before he hids the money above the ceiling tiles.

They exit the dunkin donutes and are on foot with hoodies up and hats on. A cop car passes them and connie tries to keep nick calm and to act normally. Connie handles it fine, but when the cops ask for the dude in the black sweatshirt, nick takes off and a foot chase pursues. Connie runs ahead of nick and leaves him behind with no thought on him in this situation. Nick runs into a glass door and shatters it. He is taken by the cops and sent to jail where the credit scene begins

The opening credits to the movie show nick descending into a wild new York jail where everything is chaos, fighting, climing on bars, all while nick sits emptily by the side. The fight gets broken up by pepper spray which nick takes the the face.

The teacher is back with a lawyer and theyre trying to get nick to talk about connie to them. But nick doesn’t want to talk about his brother and get him in trouble.

During the credit scene connie goes back to the dunkin donuts for the money

“THAT MONEY WAS FOR US.he was gonna buy me a farm and we were gonna live in the woods and I was gonna be able to do whatever I wanted okay. YOU DON’T LOVE ME. HE LOVES ME. CONNIE LOVES ME. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT LOVE IS. That was for us, he did it for us”

The credit scene follows nicks intake into prison, connie taking the money and going to the bail bond to cash  it in to get his borther out. Before the credits end nick gets brutally beaten in jail for no respecting others. 

Connie walks down a hall to his girlfirends house so he can borrow money. His girlfriend starts to unravel in a fight with her mom in regards to how shes acting now the connie has entered her day.

Connie lies to his girlfriend about why his borther is in jail. He says one of the therapists was abusing his brother and that he is being held at RIKERS Island.

He says that his brother is in real trouble and he tries to slyly ask for 10 thousand dollars from his gfs mom credit card. He response is okay, but then she says about how after all this is done they should get a hotel together and have a nice  vacation

“seriously that’s your response, after all I just told you, that’s your response.”-connie

His gf finds out that the money he needs is 10000 instead of 3000. She reacts in distress and he sells her on how bail bonds work and that shell get it all back.

Connie smiles at her and kisses her on the neck while they wait to hear from the bail bonds dude and for the credit card to get swiped through. He acts playfully with her trying to distract her from him using her.

“are we not going? Are we not going? Can we still go away?” his gf

Her mom calls and tells her that she canceled the card. She goes from talking calmly to yelling “MOM”

She tries to explain the bail bond to her mom and she breaks down into tears

Connie disregards her actions to the bail bonds guys and tries to get his money back. The bailbond tells him he needs another 10k before he gets any money

Lots of bright neon colors and signs, lots of shots of connie walking toward the camera and down halls with wild music playing and him looking variously disgruntled

Connies finds out the hospital his brother is staying at and goes there. He walks in casually and tricks a nurse into telling him what floor the cops are on because theyre supposed to be watching the prisoners door (6th floor)

Connie tricks the police officer guarding a door into thinking hes visitng someone at the hospital. Connie sneaks into a room nearby the officer and gives an old blind woman orange juice so she can drink it, connie takes a drink from it when shes done

Connie waits by the door until he hears the cop get up and leave the door unguarded. He grabs a wheel chair an breaks the man in the full body casts he believes is his brother out of bed and into a wheelchair that he took from the old ladys room

A slow grooning guitar riff plays as connie exits the building and synths ripple throughout

Connie makes sure his brother gets on the handicap lift before someone else

Regal guard

225th avenue

Queens boulevard

Connie doubles back to the woman who got off the bus before him. He cons his way into their house by saying he and his brother are locked out of their house and have nowhere to go and need to charge his phone. He pretends to make a call on her phone and feigns as if he is calling his mom and pretends to set up plans for him to stay inside. He takes down the womans information over the call and tells the other end of the phone to call him back.

“can I just leave him for ten minutes while I go break a window”

The carribiean womans house hes in reacts colorfully when he says hes willing to break a window to get into his house. She offers him a room to stay in and he lies to say that he wont be able to get into his house for 7 hours. She sets the up in the house and goes to bed with a young girl she is taking care of.

Connie uses some hair dye he finds in the bathroom and tries to dye his hair blonde. The granddaughter is very critical of her grandmother. Connie gets a call on the phone from his gf who hes been blowing up his phone. He wants her to get a cab and pick them up and do things for him. He has a plan to get them out

“I love you, see you in a bit”- connie to his gf

Connie makes nice with the granddaughter and they eat food and bond. He begtins asking how old she is and telling her she looks way older than 16. He tries to be relatable and get on a good side with her. She offers him weed

“it has no effect on me, im immune to it”

He asks about her bf and if hes a drug dealer

They watch cops together

There is a woman being grabbed the police and she is hysterical

“you lied to me”- says the woman in the card, she exits the vehicle brandishing a knife which she falls into and it stabs her in the gut

“theres nothing we can do for that, just leave the knife there”-cops on the scene

“I think I was I a dog in a pervious life, in fact I know I was. Its why they love me so much”

The news comes on tv while theyre watching and the website talks about the robbery and they show a picture of connie on the tv. Connie pauses and looks over at the girl whos watching tv with him. She doesn’t make notice that she saw his mug shot but he proceeds to kiss her so that she cant hear or see the rest of the news.

It is revealed that nick, their grandma, and connie were all in an altercation that resulted in her having a broken arm. Shes blames connie

Connie and the girl are on her bed making out 

The man connie stole from the hospital isn’t his brother and its some random dude.

Connie yells at the girl to go to her room and shut the door

He calms the yelling man and gives him oxys

Connie exits the room into a dark hallway and the camera follows him around. A booming and subtle score plays loudly as connie scopes out the house and all of the rooms trying to make a decision

“don’t be confused, its just gonna make it worse for me”- connie to the girl when he tells her they need to leave and steal her grandmothers car

Exposition scenes fill us in on the police being aware of the breakout while music plays

They pull up to a white castle and connie gives the girl stained money to go in and buy them food

Body cast guy recoutns his day and the scene follows each events with eerie music underlinilng the scenes

They take acid and the entire scene is drenched in filth 80s vibe synths and electronic score

They man talks about how he hid a bottle of acid in an amusement park ride

The man finishes and connie says hes going to take this man to go get the acid

Connie lies to the girl again as he puts his plan intio action

The camera follows the car as they pulled away from a very high distance. The car follows for a long period of time

Connie tells the girl that she is connected to him and he has a purpose. He lies to her and says theyre out front of someones house when really theyre outside of an amusement park

The break into the amusement park and the handicapped guy gets captured. A security guard chases connie down and connie beats his face in knocking him unconscious

The haunted house they broke into to look for the acid is turned on. Neon lights everywhere

In the house while looking for the acid connie looks into a boat section of the ride. Connie can be seen reaching down into a red void with human arm figures reaching out.

Police pull up to the park and come in. connie takes the security outfit off of the guard and the handicapped man pours acid in his mouth

Connie says “watch out for the rail” while showing the police the ride

The police are never the bad guys

The police grab the little girl waiting in the car. The police take her to connie now dressed up as a security guard and they make eye contact and her jaw drops. She is taken to the cop car and told she needs to talk to someone to get her out of there. The camera holds on her face in the car and cuts back to connie in the security outfit for a second.

Connie leaves the park and tries to leave behind the handicapped guy

The man tries to get in a car connie gets into but connie only lets him in because he has the acid. The car theyre in is the security guards car

The camera follows the car from a great distance as music ripples through the background

Scene on the tv about dog fights and then the security guards fighting dog in his apartment. The tv on in the apartment during this scene talks about dog fighting and the police getting an anyonmous tip on the culprit. The security guard has a fighting dog and an apartment that he cant afford.

The barking dog at the door immediately stops and listens to connies directions

The security guards apartment is awfully nice for someone working as an overnight security guard. 

“this is a nice place, I wish I had a nice place like this”-the bodycast man

Connie breaks it to the guy that he wants sell the acid back to the guys who he  got it from. Connie forces him to call his connect.

The man tries to connect with connie and connie just tears him a new asshole for trying to be friendly with him

“I am better than you. The second you got here you went to the booze, but that’s who you are your just a fuckup.”-connie ish

“that’s just who you are youre a fuckup. That’s it. I don’t care. Whatever. I don’t give a shit. Look losers like you are incapable of taking care of themselves. Youre either leeching off mommy (the man lives at home) or leeching of welfare or living off the government in jail. That’s you! You serve absolutely no function whatsoever, its pathetic

The mans connect comes and connie goes to a bedroom with the fighting pitbull. The man opens to door and connie is holding the dog back as it barks violently. Connie tries to negotiate with the mans connect and tells them both to get out and that theyre done.

Connie demands that the man give him 15k for the acid. The man offers him 3k,, but connie insists on getting more. The connect tells the man in the bandages that hes gonna go get guns and come back for the acid.

Connie leaves the apartment and tells the man that hes done with him. The man attacks connie and the dog comes to his rescue.

The trailer song plays as it hops through techno shrills 

Connie leaves the building and the man calls his friend to tell him to come back. Connie is seen from a birds eye view running away from the police. As hes getting tackled, he drops the acid in the parking lot and tells his friend where it fell. The police come to the apartment that the man is in and he tries to escape from a window and falls to his death.

Connie is taken out in handcuffs and goes cross eyed and looks dazed and confused. Connie watches as the bandaged man falls off of the window. He looks wild and empty in the car as he stars through the backseat of the cop car directly through the cars cage. He looks lime hes wandering and lost and the shot holds on him for a period of time, slowly zooming into his face as the music gives some relief.

The next scene is an outward zoom of nick as he sits in a waiting room. Nicks grandma has brought him to the special needs school and the teacher thanks his grandma for bringing nick to the school.

It is revealed that connie “did the responsible thing” and that connie is now where he belongs. Nick goes into a class room full of special needs adults.

“youre gonna have a good time” – the teacher

The class plays a game where you cross the room if you have every done what the teacher says. Nick just stands there with an empty stare on his face while all of his classmates cross the room.

“cross the room if youv ever not gotten along with your family members sometimes”- femkale teacher

Nick crosses the room

“cross the room if you’ve ever been blamed for something you didn’t do”- teacher

Nick crosses the room

The Pure and the Damned (Official Video from Good Time Soundtrack)

 Plays at the end

THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR THE PURE AND THE DAMNED

Iggy pop

“the pure always act from love. The damned always act from love”

The Pure and the Damned (Official Video from Good Time Soundtrack)