Good Time
Where the DNA of Good Time travels
Films that shaped it
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I remember when I saw 'Fallen Angels' for the first time... the movie's so loud, it's so frantic, it's so in the moment. And the whole thing is just... the energy of it is what I think has probably seeped into our work.
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I remember when I saw The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner by Werner Herzog, I was like, ‘This is it, man. This is what I love.’ It’s just this pure distillation of one person’s life, and you feel that by the end of it you really know him.
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I think the way that the film Dog Day Afternoon presents the protagonist, you follow them for an hour, hour and a half, before you fully understand them, and even then, your understanding is limited. So you’re not making decisions about them, you’re just in the experience with them. And then you watch how Lumet unfolds this experience over the course of the film and it feels so real, so immediate. And I think that was something we were really trying to emulate.
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The way he [Robert Pattinson] would carry himself, he would move in a different way, and that’s what I love about Herzog, you know? The man, Bruno S. in Stroszek... he’s always like a street urchin, you know? He’s this incredibly innocent guy but he’s street-smart, and that character of Bruno in Stroszek, Herzog saw that in him and brought it out.
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We were looking at films like 'Point Blank', 'Thief', and also some European noirs like 'Le Samouraï' and Wenders' 'The American Friend' for the pacing and the sense of urban isolation.
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Josh Safdie: 'We also returned to things that we love, like Edward Yang’s Taipei Story.' Benny Safdie: 'The way that his characters existed in a city, that sense of ennui and exhaustion, really spoke to us. Taipei Story was particularly interesting to us for its long, quiet takes.'
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It’s so funny, because people will say, ‘Your movies are so anxiety-inducing,’' Benny said. 'But then I think about watching Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead, and it’s a beautiful experience being anxious the entire time. I think that’s what we try to get to. We put you in the shoes of the character, and you’re trying to navigate this insane situation in a way where it’s not too much but it’s just enough, and that’s a very fine line.
Films it shaped
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And when I watched 'Good Time,' I was like, I think that's the only person I could imagine as this Batman.