61st London Film Festival | Good Time - Best laid plans go awry

Robert Pattinson breaks out.

Putting even greater distance between himself and Twilight, Robert Pattinson turns in a terrific performance as a small-time New York crook whose best laid plans go hopelessly awry in this gritty, gripping, low-budget crime thriller. First he ropes his mentally challenged younger brother (played by the film’s co-director, Benny Safdie) into a hare-brained bank robbery scheme. And when his hapless accomplice ends up in police custody, he embarks on a desperate nightlong quest to rescue him, uncaring how many people he has to exploit or deceive to achieve his aim. Directors Josh and Benny Safdie recapture the scuzzy immediacy they brought to their 2014 documentary-style junkie drama Heaven Knows What, but this time they inject the action with a thrilling nervous energy and drive.

Good Time screens today at the Odeon Leicester Square at 11.45am and goes on UK general release from 17 November.

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.