We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off To Have

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If they ever feel the need to remake the 1987 garbage masterpiece Street Trash, about outer borough bums who explode into neon goo, the Safdie Brothers could probably do it - they're halfway there with Good Time, which stars Robert Pattinson and Ben Safdie as outer borough brothers and semi-bums who, well, sort of explode into neon goo. At least metaphorically.

And so the summer of atomic blondes breezes on, with a bleached-out whacked-out Pattinson grabbing Queens by the cohones and the crunched-up codeine dust, slipping and sliding Alice in Wonderland like through a long dark night of electric green fluorescent hot dog lamps and security mutts. Licking their mutton, licking their chops. Pattinson's Connie always feels like his brain is five steps ahead of his own feet, tripping himself up before he even notices he's stepped, but he's running.

He's a hot mess, scorching the patches of earth between expressways and under overpasses, and he's not alone. They are legion, fix-lookers and back-lot surfers, and they are all converging on this little epic acid hellscape tour. They careen past the husks of haunted carnival rides, hospital hallways. They are the weeds stuck through cement; the dandelion seeds caught in a chain-link fence. Here things scurry - towards the nearest subway entrance; towards the sewer.

In other words - what a New York Movie! Like an alternate reality just a three-quarter step to the side there are nights here where you'll look down and see Connie's shoes staring up from your feet, or maybe following you too closely from one darkened somewhere to one hopefully slightly better lit somewhere else. Good Time captures this city, desperate heaving rat clotted city that I love - the dark technicolor carburetor sheen across questionable puddles, a poisoned rainbow. It's something!

Good Time Extras: I put Good Time among My 5 Favorite Movies of 2017 (So Far) earlier this week -- you can see that list right here. And I posted some pictures of Pattinson and the Safdies at a Q&A a couple weeks ago right here. And here's the trailer below if you need more convincing. See this movie!

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