Good Time
Are you ready for a Good Time?
Country
Production
Budget
$2 000 000
Revenue
$3 286 100
Director
Actors
Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Buddy Duress, Taliah Webster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Barkhad Abdi, Necro, Peter Verby, Saida Mansoor, Gladys Mathon
All actors and roles (10)
All actors and roles (10)
Scenario
Producer
Terry Dougas, Sebastian Bear-McClard, Oscar Boyson, Paris Kasidokostas Latsis, Jean-Luc De Fanti
Operator
Composer
Artist
Sam Lisenco
Audition
Jennifer Venditti
Short description
Connie Nikas and his younger brother Nick rob a bank in New York City, and the job goes wrong. Connie escapes, but Nick is caught and sent to prison. Connie sets out to raise the bail money, first by asking his girlfriend Corey, and when that fails he spends a single night working through the city's criminal underworld, trying to get his brother out before time runs out. The film was directed by Josh Safdie, who wrote it with Ronald Bronstein, and it sits between Heaven Knows What (2015) and Uncut Gems (2019) in the directing work he and his brother Benny Safdie share. Robert Pattinson plays Connie, Benny Safdie plays Nick, and the cast also includes Buddy Duress, Taliah Webster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Barkhad Abdi.
Made for 2 million USD and released in August 2017, Good Time earned about 3 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.3/10 from 155,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2/10 from 3,250 votes, while critics gave it 7.6/10 across 238 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The scene where Connie enters the hospital was indeed filmed in a hospital emergency room with real patients.
- Initially, Eric Roberts played the role of the bail bondsman, but the scene was reshot with a real bail bondsman named Eric Paquet. Paquet has been a bail bondsman for 20 years, runs his own office in Queens, and is married to Astrid Corrales. He was initially approached for permission to simply use his office, but the Safdie brothers later asked Paquet and Corrales to play in the scene, and the scene was reshot.
- Robert Pattinson's hair was dyed so often that at some point it simply began to fall out. Initially, it was dyed black (to make him look more like Benny Safdie, who played his brother), then bleached, and then dyed black again – and this happened several times. The scenes were filmed in a bathroom where he applied the dye in front of a mirror, but this scene was cut from the film because it slowed down the overall pace. When filming wrapped, the actor shaved off all his hair.
- The title “Good Time” is a phrase from prison slang. It refers to a reduction in a prison sentence for good behavior.
- During filming, Josh Safdie was arrested for driving a vehicle that aroused suspicion in the police without a license. Peter Verby, who played the psychiatrist in the film, is actually a criminal defense attorney and represented Safdie's interests in court after filming ended. He also represented the actor Buddy Duress, who was released from prison shortly before filming began.
- The Safdie brothers didn't like how the fake money looked – and a lot of money was needed for the bank robbery scene – so they asked the props department to figure out a solution. According to Josh Safdie, a whole factory for producing counterfeit bills was set up. One day, Robert Pattinson, who regularly went outside in character and costume, unintentionally paid with a fake bill for a pack of cigarettes.
- Robert Pattinson's performance as Connie was influenced by John Alpert's documentary 'One Year in a Life of Crime' (1989).
- During pre-production, when it was necessary to determine if the makeup and costumes were in order and looked realistic enough, Robert Pattinson went shopping in New York and talked to passersby on the street. In addition, he spent a lot of time – already out of character – in Queens, working on his pronunciation and talking to people who had recently been released from prison. He asked some of them to read several pages of the script aloud, recorded it on his phone, and then listened to the voice of a 'local' before going to sleep.
- With the exception of Robert Pattinson and Benny Safdie, none of the actors involved in the film were given a script; they were simply told to improvise in each scene. Pattinson and Safdie were given the script, but were still instructed to react to the lines and actions of other actors as much as possible.
- The subway scene was filmed during rush hour on a real train with real passengers who, naturally, didn't even realize they were being filmed. Instructions were sent to Pattinson via text message for secrecy, and all his actions were filmed with a camera.
- The filming locations were not cordoned off, allowing free access, and this decision was made for the sake of authenticity and to avoid attracting unnecessary attention to the filming. Robert Pattinson was not recognized during filming, and no passersby ever tried to film what was happening on their cell phones. The crew was instructed to answer all questions about what was happening by saying that they were filming a movie for social services, and that the film didn't even have a title yet. When Pattinson stepped out of frame during filming, he remained in character so as not to be recognized. He was so convincing in his portrayal that during the filming of a scene in the security guard's house towards the end of the film, local residents asked him in the elevator if he worked as a security guard for Bradley Cooper, as they had heard that a film with that actor was being shot somewhere nearby.
- While preparing for the film, Robert Pattinson and Ben Safdie worked at a car wash in Queens, New York.
- The role of Connie Nikas was written specifically for Robert Pattinson, who contacted the Safdie brothers after randomly stumbling upon a poster for their previous film, “Heaven Knows What” (2014), with Ariel Holmes in pink lighting. He was so intrigued by the photograph that he wrote to Josh Safdie at an email address, even though he didn't know them, saying he would like to work with them. A face-to-face meeting was arranged a few weeks later, and Josh Safdie liked both Pattinson himself and his enthusiasm, so Safdie immediately sat down to write the script.
- The directors of the film, brothers Benny and Josh Safdie, found out that the film had been selected for the competition program of the Cannes International Film Festival because Robert Pattinson once sent them a picture of a Japanese electronic toilet. Pattinson himself learned about this from the festival director but couldn't tell the brothers, as they were in an important meeting at the time, so he simply sent them the picture. The Safdie brothers and the actor had made a bet on such a toilet some time ago – if the film got into Cannes, Pattinson would buy one for the Safdie brothers. Several weeks later, the toilet was installed in the office of the brothers' Elara Pictures company.
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