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Unfortunately, Robert Pattinson’s Good Time co-star Buddy Duress passed away last year at the age of 38. After gaining worldwide recognition with his role as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Edward Cullen in The Twilight Saga, Pattinson switched to independent films which also gained him critical acclaim. One of these films was the Safdie Brothers’ Good Time.

Buddy Duress was a frequent collaborator of the Safdie Brothers and was best known for his roles in movies like 2017’s Good Time, Heaven Knows What, and Person to Person. He had gotten into quite some legal troubles before his unfortunate demise.

Buddy Duress

Buddy Duress’ Younger Brother Revealed How the Actor Passed Away

Buddy Duress, born Michael C. Stathis, did not make his film debut until 2014 when he starred in Heaven Knows What. He was on the run from law when he was discovered by Josh Safdie.

Buddy Duress, the actor who appeared in two Safdie Brothers films including 2017’s Good Time starring Robert Pattinson, died last November of what his brother said this week was “cardiac arrest from a drug cocktail.” Duress was 38.

Duress’ death was announced on social media last week by director Jay Karales, whose upcoming film Mass State Lottery features Duress. The cause of death was announced yesterday to People by the actor’s brother Christopher Stathis (Duress was born Michael C. Stathis).

“This man was an absolute treasure,” Karales, known professionally as LowRes Wünderbred, wrote. “Without a doubt, Buddy Duress was one of the most entertaining people I’ve ever met and his stories were unrivaled. I remember seeing him in Good Time in 2017 and saying, ‘That is what the future of acting needs to be. That guy.’ He brought a certain authenticity and charisma to the screen that you just don’t see anymore.

Buddy Duress, an actor best known for starring opposite Robert Pattinson in the Safdie brothers 2017 film Good Time, has died. He was 38. The actor’s brother, Christopher Stathis, confirmed the passing with People on Tuesday, February 27, revealing Duress died of “cardiac arrest from a drug cocktail” in November 2023. Born in May 1985 in Queens, New York, Duress landed his first big-screen acting gig in Benny and Josh Safdie‘s 2014 psychological drama film Heaven Knows What, where he played low-level drug dealer Mike. He would collaborate with the Safdie brothers again in their 2017 feature Good Time, which stars Pattinson as a small-time criminal who tries to free his developmentally disabled brother (Benny Safdie) from police custody while attempting to avoid his own arrest. Duress played Ray, a criminal recently released on parole. Duress’ other credits include Person to Person (2017), The Mountain (2018), The Great Darkened Days (2018), Pvt Chat (2021), Flinch (2021), and the 2022 black comedy Funny Pages,...

Buddy Duress, who co-starred alongside Robert Pattinson in the Safdie Brothers’ Good Time, has died at the age of 38.

According to People, Duress died of “a cardiac arrest from a drug cocktail” in November 2023. His death was confirmed to People by his brother, Christopher Stathis.

Duress made his acting debut in the Safdie Brothers’ 2014 film Heaven Knows What, in which he played a drug dealer named Mike. Duress initially met co-director Josh Safdie while on the run after skipping out on a drug in-patient program. He ultimately missed the film’s premiere as he was apprehended by police and sent back to prison.

In 2017, following his release from prison, Duress reconnected with the Safdie Brothers for the crime thriller Good Time. The film, partially based off of his own journal, featured Duress in the role of the career criminal Ray, opposite Pattinson and Benny Safdie.

Duress also appeared in such films as 86’d,...

Buddy Duress, known for his role alongside Robert Pattinson in the Safdie Brothers’ Good Time, has died. He was 38.

Duress, born Michael C. Stathis, died of “a cardiac arrest from a drug cocktail” in November 2023, his brother Christopher Stathis confirmed to People on Tuesday.

Duress was also known for his performance as Mike, a drug dealer in the Safdie Brothers’ 2014 Heaven Knows What and. In Good Time, released 2017 and based partially on Duress’ life, he played Ray, a recently released criminal to Pattinson’s protagonist Constantine “Connie” Nikas.

In a 2017 SSense interview, Duress said he first met Josh Safdie in 2013, following his release from jail for drug charges. He landed the role in Heaven Knows What shortly after, but was sent back jail before the film’s premiere for skipping a drug in-patient program.

“You know, I still look back at it. If I had went to that program, I...

Buddy Duress has sadly passed away.

The actor, who was best known for his roles in Good Time and Heavens Knows What, died of “cardiac arrest from a drug cocktail” in November 2023, his brother Christopher Stathis shared with People on Tuesday (February 27).

Keep reading to find out more…Buddy was born Michael C. Stathis in Queens, New York in May 1985. He made his acting debut in Josh and Benny Safdie’s 2014 film Heaven Knows What.

He then teamed up with the Safdie brothers again for the 2017 movie Good Time where he played a drug dealer who partners with Robert Pattinson‘s character as the attempt to retrieve a Sprite bottle containing acid.

Buddy also appeared in several other movies including Person to Person, Beware of Dog, and Funny Pages. He has two more projects – Skull and Mass State Lottery – scheduled to be released later this year.

Buddy is survived by...

Buddy Duress (né Michael C. Stathis), who starred alongside Robert Pattinson in the Safdie brothers’ 2017 crime thriller “Good Time,” has died. He was 38.

Duress’ brother Christopher Stathis revealed to People on Tuesday that the actor died in November 2023 of “cardiac arrest from a drug cocktail.”

Duress was born in Queens, New York, in May 1985. He made his acting debut in Josh and Benny Safdie’s 2014 film “Heaven Knows What,” which also stars Caleb Landry Jones and Arielle Holmes. In “Good Time,” Duress portrayed Ray, a drug dealer who becomes Connie Nikas’ (Pattinson) partner in crime as the two attempt to retrieve a Sprite bottle containing liquid LSD.

Along with “Heaven Knows What” and “Good Time,” Duress worked on such films as “Person to Person” (2017), “The Great Darkened Days” (2018), “Beware of Dog” (2020), “Pvt Chat” (2020), “Flinch” (2021) and “Funny Pages” (2022). Duress has two more unreleased projects: a short film titled “Skull” and Jay...

shot piecemeal between July 2018 and April of the following year, Adam Leon’s “Italian Studies” may be set along (and expertly stolen from) the crowded sidewalks of London and New York, but it’s unmistakably suffused with the woozy dislocation and “we have to make something” life-force of a Covid film. No one is wearing masks or social distancing in the heat of lower Manhattan on a summer afternoon, yet Leon’s heroine — a successful author played by Vanessa Kirby at a time just before people on the street would recognize her as one of the gutsiest actresses of her generation, or as anyone at all — is lost in a fugue state that vividly reflects the isolation and uncertainty of the last 18 months.

Alina Reynolds (Kirby) can’t tell if she’s in crisis, or if she’s just confused. She can’t tell if she remembers the world around...

I first heard about Pvt Chat during its long post-production period in 2019. The film struck me as too good to be true: an erotic drama, directed by Ben Hozie of Bodega, about a man (Peter Vack) obsessed with an internet cam girl (Julia Fox), along with supporting turns by Buddy Duress, Dasha and Anna from Red Scare, and Keith Poulson––not to mention a score by Parquet Courts’ Austin Brown.

With the film now in theaters and on digital, I asked Hozie to take part in a conversation, promising I “wouldn’t ask any boring or stupid questions.” He graciously agreed.

The Film Stage: One of the things I appreciate about Pvt Chat is how you handled the sex scenes—they’re super unstylized and raw, with an intimate, unpredictable quality. What was the process like? What were some of the conversations you had with the cast and crew to set the tone?...

Stars: Nikki Belfiglio, Atticus Cain, Buddy Duress, Julia Fox, Kevin Moccia, Keith Poulson, Peter Vack, David White | Written and Directed by Ben Hozie

Ben Hozie writes and directs Pvt Chat, a psycho-erotic drama about a New York City based online gambler named Jack (Peter Vack) who begins an obsession with a cam-girl called Scarlet (Julia Fox), which leads to different places when he runs into her in real-life on the streets.

The movie begins nicely enough, with a heart-warming scene involving masturbatory fantasies related to high-heel shoes and cigarettes, but things get a little more adult from there. The way the film is shot feels very intimate, maybe too intimate, as we enter the up-close world of Jack and Scarlet’s noxious relationship (if relationship is even the right term). The sexual acts and moments in which the two open up to one another feel like we’re in the same room,...

Vertigo Releasing has debuted a new trailer for writer, director, and Bodega front-man Ben Hozie’s ‘Pvt Chat’.

Jack (Peter Vack) is a lonely internet gambler living in New York City. He quickly becomes fixated on Scarlet (Julia Fox) – a cam girl from San Francisco. As Jack learns more about Scarlet, he discovers her unrealized talent as a painter and begins to fall hard for her. His obsession reaches a boiling point when fantasy materializes in reality, and Jack sees Scarlet on a rainy street in NYC Chinatown. While Scarlet is clearly hiding her whole truth, milking Jack’s wallet in the process, she also seems to develop genuine feelings for him. Jack has to find out – is their emotional connection real or is he just being taken for a ride?

The film stars Peter Vack, Julia Fox and Buddy Duress.

Also in trailers – Frank Grillo is a slimeball in...

From the moment we first encounter unwell online gambler “Blackjack” Jack (Peter Vack), he is a cheerful loose cannon. In this case, it is while he is in the middle of getting his nightly kicks on an internet sex chat site. He has found his way into a video conversation with buxom black leather-clad dominatrix Scarlet (Julia Fox), who per his instruction verbally undresses a nude Jack, coaching him to an orgasmic climax in the dark of his tiny New York apartment, while writer/director/cinematographer/editor Ben Hozie’s fish-eye lens hovers over him.

Jack is the mad antihero at the heart of Pvt Chat, scheduled for theatrical release on February 5th before premiering on VOD and streaming platforms on February 9th through Dark Star Pictures. The film is currently screening as part of the Dark Star Virtual Festival, a free online event courtesy of Dark Star and Bloody Disgusting,...

Ben Hozie's psycho-sexual thriller Pvt Chat is coming to (some) U.S. cinemas on February 5th followed by On Demand and digital releases on February 9th. The official poster and trailer were released yesterday. You will find both down below including a selection of stills. The poster and a couple of the images are slightly suggestive so do with that information what you will. Pvt Chat had its world premiere during the digital edition of Fantasia in August last year. Hozie wrote, directed, shot and edited his film. He let other people join in on the fun as well including his key cast Peter Vack (HBO Max’s “Love Life”) and Julia Fox. His film also stars Buddy Duress, Keith Poulson, Kevin Moccia,...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

"You use these people, or they use you." Dark Star has debuted an official trailer for Pvt Chat, another cam girl stalker film. This originally premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival last year, and it lands on VOD next month. Jack is an internet gambler living in NYC who becomes fixated on Scarlet - a cam girl from San Francisco. His obsession reaches a boiling point when fantasy materializes in reality and Jack sees Scarlet on a rainy Chinatown street. What will he do next? Pvt Chat stars Julia Fox (best known for Uncut Gems) as Scarlet, and Peter Vack as her stalker Jack, also joined by Buddy Duress, Keith Poulson, Kevin Moccia, and David J. White. This looks like a twisted, discomforting examination of how the internet has altered the way we connect, and empowered people to get crazier thinking they know someone from online. Here's the official trailer...

Pvt Chat starring Peter Vack and Julia Fox opens in theaters February 5th and On Demand & Digital February 9th.

Check out the trailer:

Jack is a lonely internet gambler living in New York City. He quickly becomes fixated on Scarlet – a cam girl from San Francisco. As Jack learns more about Scarlet, he discovers her unrealized talent as a painter and begins to fall hard for her. His obsession reaches a boiling point when fantasy materializes in reality and Jack sees Scarlet on a rainy street in NYC Chinatown. While Scarlet is clearly hiding her whole truth, milking Jack’s wallet in the process, she also seems to develop genuine feelings for him. Jack has to find out – is their emotional connection real or is he just being taken.

Pvt Chat stars Peter Vack, Julia Fox, Buddy Duress, Keith Poulson, Kevin Moccia, and David J. White

The post Check Out...

Freestyle Dm has released an official trailer for an indie film titled Beware of Dog, a Russian drama that premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival last year. The film tells the story of three different young adults struggling with their mental health problems in their cities - Moscow, Berlin, NYC. Alienated in politically-ambiguous Moscow, a young woman deals with Ocd, while her cousin in Berlin tries to build a romantic relationship ignoring her own condition. In New York City, a heartbroken boxer struggles with addiction, self worth and online anxiety, which connects all of these characters. Starring Marina Vasileva, Paula Knüpling, and Buddy Duress. Early reviews praise the film, saying "Bedzhanova crafted a narrative that examines the many facets of mental illness in a way that never feels trite or exploitative." Take a look below. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Nadia Bedzhanova's Beware of Dog, direct from YouTube...

Rising star Julia Fox made her breakout turn in 2019 in the Safdie Brothers’ “Uncut Gems” as Howie Ratner’s (Adam Sandler) loyal girlfriend. But she’s thankfully not about to go mainstream and appears to be sticking to her New York City art scene roots. Next up, she stars as a femme fatale in Ben Hozie’s noir-inspired psychosexual, urban thriller “Pvt Chat.” In this New York-set indie, Fox is a leather-clad cam girl opposite Peter Vack as an online blackjack and her sub client, whom she meets during web calls. Watch the trailer, exclusive to IndieWire, for the film below.

In “Pvt Chat,” Jack (Vack) is a lonely internet gambler who becomes fixated on Scarlet (Fox). He discovers her unrealized talent as a painter and begins to fall hard, but his obsession reaches a boiling point when fantasy materializes in reality and Jack sees Scarlet on a rainy street in NYC Chinatown.

"This would look very nice in my dining room." Ah yes, nothing like a good story about a struggling artist. But this short film has a bit more to offer. Victor in Paradise is a bleak dark comedy short film written and directed by Brooklyn filmmaker Brendan McHugh, and after initially premiering at the Palm Springs International Shortfest, it's now available to watch online. When his landlord arrives to collect long overdue rent, Victor, a daydreaming painter of little means, desperately attempts to gather money needed to stave off eviction. He tries to sell some of his paintings, but it doesn't exactly work out. Poor guy. Starring Nicholas Braun (from "Succession") as Victor, along with Colby Minifie, Mark Blum, Susan Blommaert, and Buddy Duress. There's layers to this short film that many shorts don't even consider. Beyond that, it's just stylistically clever - the film has a bit of a Wes Anderson vibe.

Well Go USA Entertainment has closed a deal for the North American distribution to Arclight Films’ Here Are the Young Men, an Irish teen drama starring Travis Fimmel, Dean-Charles Chapman, Finn Cole, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Ferdia Walsh-Peelo. Slated to be released in 2021, the pic is based on the acclaimed novel by Rob Doyle. Eoin Macken directed the film from a screenplay he co-wrote with Doyle.

St in 2003, the film details the last summer of three Dublin high school graduates—aimless Matthew (Chapman), his charismatic yet deranged friend Kearney (Cole) and their precocious friend Rez (Walsh-Peelo)—as they embark on an epic binge to celebrate a future without limits. But when they witness a catastrophic accident, the incident sends them spiraling,...

Unconventional love story stars ‘Uncut Gems’ breakout talent Julia Fox.

Vertigo Releasing has acquired UK and Ireland rights to erotic drama PVT Chat, which stars Uncut Gems breakout actress Julia Fox.

Vertigo picked up the rights directly from US producer Pretorius Pictures and plans to release the film theatrically and on digital platforms from February 5, 2021.

Pvt Chat will also be released by Rialto Distribution in Australia and New Zealand through its ongoing strategic partnership with Vertigo. The UK-based distributor has also partnered with Gravel Road to distribute the film in South Africa. Release dates for these territories have yet to be scheduled.

Stars: Nikki Belfiglio, Atticus Cain, Buddy Duress, Julia Fox, Kevin Moccia, Keith Poulson, Peter Vack, David White | Written and Directed by Ben Hozie

Ben Hozie writes and directs Pvt Chat, a psycho-erotic drama about a New York City based online gambler named Jack (Peter Vack) who begins an obsession with a cam-girl called Scarlet (Julia Fox), which leads to different places when he runs into her in real-life on the streets.

The movie begins nicely enough, with a heart-warming scene involving masturbatory fantasies related to high-heel shoes and cigarettes, but things get a little more adult from there. The way the film is shot feels very intimate, maybe too intimate, as we enter the up-close world of Jack and Scarlet’s noxious relationship (if relationship is even the right term). The sexual acts and moments in which the two open up to one another feel like we’re in the same room,...

The 26th edition of the Slamdance Film Festival has set its slate for the films in the Narrative and Documentary Feature Film Competition programs as well as the lineup for their Breakouts section. The fest will take place in Park City, Utah January 24-30, 2020.

As the fest “by filmmakers, for filmmakers,” this year’s Slamdance will feature 16 premieres, including 10 world premieres with films from United States, Belarus, Canada Germany, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Russia, and South Africa. The films in competition are feature-length directorial debuts with budgets of less than $1 million and without Us distribution. Films in both categories are also eligible for the Audience Award and Spirit of Slamdance Award.

“Slamdance is above all a place of discovery,” said Slamdance Co-founder and President Peter Baxter. “Every year filmmakers break out of the festival because the industry at large recognizes the need for new voices. With a record breaking 8,231 submissions this year,...

The Slamdance Film Festival unveiled its 2020 lineup of microbudget films Monday that will premiere at the Sundance alternative, among of which include projects about Chernobyl, a brainwashing camp, drag queens and a taxidermist looking for Bigfoot.

All films in competition during its weeklong celebration in Park City from Jan. 24-30 have no U.S. distribution and a budget of under $1 million. Films from 10 countries will participate: U.S., Belarus, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Russia, and South Africa.

“Slamdance is above all a place of discovery,” said Slamdance Co-founder and President Peter Baxter. “Every year filmmakers break out of the festival because the industry at large recognizes the need for new voices. With a record breaking 8,231 submissions this year, our artist-led organization brings a lineup full of wonderful risk taking and unique storytelling. That’s the spirit of Slamdance 2020.”

Also Read: 'High Flying Bird' Film Review: Steven Soderbergh...

Slamdance Film Festival has unveiled its 26th anniversary narrative and documentary feature film competition programs, as well as the lineup for its new breakouts section.

The narrative lineup includes director Heather Young’s drama “Murmur.” The movie, which won the Fipresci Discovery Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival, stars Shan MacDonald as an older woman who, while performing community service at an animal shelter, begins compulsively adopting pets to ease her loneliness.

The festival, launched in 1995 as an alternative to Sundance, has included showings of such notable titles as Oren Peli’s “Paranormal Activity.” The fest, which takes place at the Treasure Mountain Inn in Park City, Utah, from Jan. 24 to Jan. 30, will screen 23 movies including 10 world premieres, five North American premieres, and one U.S. premiere.

Slamdance alumni include Joe and Anthony Russo, Christopher Nolan, Marc Forster, Jared Hess, Lena Dunham, Benh Zeitlin, Seth Gordon, and Lynn Shelton.

Selectors considered record 8,231 submissions.

New work from Uruguay, Japan and South Africa are among the 20-strong Slamdance Film Festival feature film competition line-up unveiled on Monday (December 2) alongside the second Breakouts selection.

The 26th edition of the Park City, Utah, festival runs from January 24-30 and across all sections includes 16 premieres, including 10 world, 5 North American, and one Us berths. All competition films are feature-length directorial debuts with budgets under $1m and without Us distribution. All are eligible for the Audience Award and Spirit of Slamdance Award, the latter of which is voted upon by filmmakers at the festival.

“Slamdance is...

“Good Time” isn’t exactly a laugh riot. Robert Pattinson stars as one of two bank-robbing brothers in the Safdie Brothers’ latest, the title of which is about as ironic as Michael Haneke’s “Happy End.” In a new Los Angeles Times interview, however, the “Twilight” star–turned–arthouse staple reveals that the film’s first draft was “much more of a comedy.”...

From the Safdie brothers comes a crime drama starring Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Jason Leigh. And if a film having the “certified fresh” stamp of approval from Rotten Tomatoes means anything at all to you then you should probably check out the film Good Time. We have all the details on the in-home release below.

Santa Monica, CA (September 14, 2017) – No crime goes unpunished when the hypnotic action-thriller Good Time heads to Blu-ray (plus Digital HD) and DVD November 21 from Lionsgate. Racing against the clock to get his brother out of jail, Connie Nikas finds himself trying to make some quick hustles while evading arrest on the colorful streets of New York. Directed by the visionary Safdie Brothers (Heaven Knows What, Lenny Cooke) and starring Robert Pattinson (The Twilight Saga franchise, The Rover) and Oscar® nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh (Best Supporting Actress, The Hateful Eight, 2015), the Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh™ film,...

An uneven oddity from writer/directors Joshua and Ben Safdie, Good Time never generates the momentum its ‘one crazy night’ premise needs, but its mood is dark, its settings weird, and its characters eccentric enough that I recommend it. This tale of crime and urban living takes place in the streets of the Queens section of NYC. Robert Pattinson stars as Constantine “Connie” Nikas, a wiry scruff who teams up with his mentally-challenged younger brother Nick (Ben Safdie) for a bank robbery that goes all kinds of wrong. The dye packs explode, dousing them both in red. Connie somehow escapes but Nick runs through a glass door and is apprehended. Soon after he’s tossed in jail, Nick picks a fight with another prisoner that doesn’t end well for him and he’s transported to a hospital. Increasingly desperate, Connie spends the rest of the night trying to free his brother from captivity,...

In the first scene of Good Time, the latest from directors Josh and Benny Safdie, Connie Nikas (Robert Pattinson) barges into an office where a social worker is interviewing his brother Nick (Benny Safdie), who has a mental disability and impaired hearing. From there, the two brothers are off to the races, as Benjamin Mercer writes at Reverse Shot:Almost immediately after, Connie is hauling Nick along with him on an ill-conceived robbery of a bank branch in Flushing, Queens. “Do you think I could have done that without you standing next to me, being strong?” Connie reassures Nick right after the job—and just before a paint bomb goes off in their bag of stolen cash, filling the cab they’re in with red vapor and sending it off the road. The accident, an eye-poppingly entropic moment staged by the Safdies and captured as if on the fly by cinematographer Sean Price Williams,...

The following essay was produced as part of the 2017 Locarno Critics Academy, a workshop for aspiring film critics that took place during the 70th edition of the Locarno Film Festival.

The term “independent film” is vaguer than ever, but film festivals are the best place to look for its evolving definition. While American independent film has developed a unique identity thanks to Sundance and other North American showcases, it takes on a very different profile when these films travel abroad.

The Locarno Film Festival has developed something of a reputation for enabling European festival-goers to discover the best of American independent film, its visitors relying on the festival’s programmers to delve through the material sold as independent to find the films that deserve the label. Here’s a look at four highlights from this year’s lineup that were well-received by the festival’s audiences.

“Good Time”

Though it...

Sometimes it takes an actor a little while to fully come into their own. For Robert Pattinson, he has certainly been doing his best to have a distinctive post Twilight identity. Working multiple times with David Cronenberg, taking a turn in The Lost City of Z, and now in Good Time, Pattinson is determined to gain full on respect for his talents. This latest film has been making a run at the independent box office and is his best work to date. With an expansion for the movie on the horizon in a few days, I wanted to double back and talk about it a bit. It marks the latest outing by filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie, who are directors to watch out for. Armed with Pattinson, they’ve crafted something top notch. The film is a crime drama indebted to the genre entries of the past. Bank robber Connie...

Good Time is a sleazy synth-trip through New York City that stews in a bath of Walter Hill and Running Scared influences. Very Point-a-to-Point-b, burning like a 100-minute fuse. The Safdie brothers (Benny/Josh) navigate New York City like a character itself, creating an underbelly thriller that speeds around dangerous streets with cavalier opportunism. It’s a movie that could Only happen in NYC – as sprawling as it is multifaceted. But even better? An A-list Hollywood heartthrob sheds beautification in favor of back-alley survival scars. Performance becomes transformation and vampire glitter fades to grime (hint at the actor who grows tremendously with each tough break).

Robert Pattinson stars as Connie Nikas, a common thug who’d do anything for his mentally disabled, hearing-challenged brother Nick (Benny Safdie). Connie refuses to watch Nick waste time under psychiatric treatment. He’d rather rob a bank and flee to the country with Nick than live on the grid,...

By now, Robert Pattinson shouldn't have to prove he can act. Cosmopolis, The Rover, Maps to the Stars and The Lost City of Z – they all show that his brooding Twilight days have passed into teen-movie myth. But if doubters still need proof, check out the Pattinson tour de force in Good Time. The title makes the movie sound like a romp. Instead, it's a hellish ride through a New York night. As directed by the Safdie brothers, Josh and Benny, the movie rips through 100 minutes of screen time like Wile E.

Good Time Director: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie Written by: Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie Cast: Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Barkhad Abdi, Buddy Duress Screened at: Park Ave., NYC, 7/13/17 Opens: August 11, 2017 There are moments that Robert Pattinson, even with a Trump-like blond dye-job on his voluminous hair, resembles Al Pacino in […]

The post Good Time Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Person To Person Review Person to Person (2017) Film Review, a movie directed by Dustin Guy Defa, and starring Michael Cera, Abbi Jacobson, Philip Baker Hall, Michaela Watkins, Tavi Gevinson, Olivia Luccardi, Craig Butta, Ben Rosenfeld, Hunter Zimmy, Bene Coopersmith, George Semple III, Buddy Duress, [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Person To Person (2017): A Simple, Silly Day In The Life Of New York City...

Tony Sokol Jun 28, 2017

Good Time might just feature Robert Pattinson's best work to date. Here's the trailer for it...

This place can be a lot of fun if you let it, the new Good Time trailer promises, and you can take that to the bank. Just don’t leave it there. A24 Film’s upcoming bank heist fallout film stole the hearts and minds of Cannes Film Festival critics, who reckoned it might be Robert Pattinson’s best role to date.

Set in New York, the Scorsese-esque Good Time, stars the Twilight heartthrob as Constantine Nikas, an underworld figure trying to get his mentally challenged brother Nick out of jail for a bank job pulled by the local mob. These mobsters know how to have a Good Time, at the expense of his brother’s bad, and the clock is ticking.

The movie was directed by Josh and Benny Safdie,...

Leaping straight from the American independent scene into the (ostensible) prestige of Cannes with Good Time, Josh and Benny Safdie deliver one of the best films in competition. Following up the superb junkie drama Heaven Knows What (2014), the New York directors rewrite a familiar crime drama with their distinctive voices, creating a story that's at once gripping, formally thrilling and cannily aware of its social context. It may be too soon to say whether the Safdies will become Cannes perennials; but at this moment, they provide the official selection with a welcome dose of adrenaline.Following an opening that sees Constantine “Connie” Nikas (Robert Pattinson) pull his mentally handicapped brother Nick (Benny Safdie) from a therapist interview (of sorts), Good Time wastes no time in getting going. After a bank robbery gone wrong, during which Nick gets taken by the cops, the camera sticks almost exclusively to Connie, tracing his...

It’s probably safe to say that, up until now, no lucid person had compared a Safdie brothers film to the work of Michael Mann. Indeed, it may still be a stretch, though Good Time — the New York siblings’ latest eye-popping, pill-popping, attention-deficit character study — could feasibly be described as just that. It’s in parts a heist movie (iconic masks included) and a chase movie, but not an homage in any sense — more an evolution, like a 21st-century fast-food hybrid that mixes trash television and drug culture with Day-Glo-splattered night-time cinematography and throbbing synthesizers, thanks to a standout score from Oneohtrix Point Never.

We open on a very Mannian helicopter shot that leads to an unmistakably ’80s title card. Robert Pattinson gives the performance of his career thus far as Connie Nikas, a wired, erratically dangerous, and unpredictable pariah who looks like he could use a good night’s sleep.

Author: Jo-Ann Titmarsh

From the exhilarating and curious opening of Josh and Benny Safdie’s aptly titled Good Time, the audience is aware that they are about to be in for one. The same cannot be said for its protagonists. In Daddy Longlegs the Safdie brothers focused on father-child relationships and here they have shifted to a fraternal one.

The film opens on a psychiatrist’s office as we watch the apparently autistic and hard-of-hearing Nick (Benny Safdie) unwillingly responding to a series of psychological quizzes. The session is abruptly brought to an end by the interruption of Connie (Robert Pattinson), Nick’s older brother. In just a couple of minutes, we learn about the boys’ tormented past with their grandma (parents are never mentioned) and that Connie has always got Nick’s back. Whether that’s a good thing is called into question in the next scene, which sees the boys robbing a bank.

Robert Pattinson made his name in “Twilight” and now capitalizes on his global bankability by chasing distinctive character roles and indie auteurs. This time it’s Josh and Benny Safdie’s Cannes Competition entry “Good Time” (A24, August 11) as he takes on the canny older brother who looks out for his impulsive, hulking sibling (Benny Safdie).

At the official Cannes press conference following the screening, he announced that he’ll star in “Parrots of Summer,” the upcoming film from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ciro Guerra (“Embrace of the Serpent”) as well as another film with David Michôd, with whom he worked on “The Rover.”

In the can is “Damsel,” a Zellner brothers western with Mia Wasikowska, which is seeking distribution; coming up are movies with French filmmaker Claire Denis (father-daughter space drama “High Life”) and “Christine” director Antonio Campos.

Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Cannes Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted...

Robert Pattinson made his name in “Twilight” and now capitalizes on his global bankability by chasing distinctive character roles and indie auteurs. This time it’s Josh and Benny Safdie’s Cannes Competition entry “Good Time” (A24, August 11) as he takes on the canny older brother who looks out for his impulsive, hulking sibling (Benny Safdie).

At the official Cannes press conference following the screening, he announced that he’ll star in “Parrots of Summer,” the upcoming film from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ciro Guerra (“Embrace of the Serpent”) as well as another film with David Michôd, with whom he worked on “The Rover.”

In the can is “Damsel,” a Zellner brothers western with Mia Wasikowska, which is seeking distribution; coming up are movies with French filmmaker Claire Denis (father-daughter space drama “High Life”) and “Christine” director Antonio Campos.

Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Cannes Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted...

It may be the best reception at Cannes thus far.

When the Safdie brothers arrived for the premiere of their heist thriller Good Time, starring Robert Pattinson, the night started out with early cheers the minute they stepped up to the Palais.

Inside the theater, everyone in the orchestra and balcony started screaming once they saw Pattinson on the big screen pulling up to the venue.

Josh Safdie danced while waiting to get into the Palais, and the film's co-star Buddy Duress threw up his arms to get the crowd going.

When the competition film finished screening, it received a...

In the opening minutes of Josh and Benny Safdie’s “Good Time,” Robert Pattinson bursts into the room and it’s clear he’s trying something different. With his black hair tousled above an angry stare and a silvery earring peering out from one side, he’s a scruffy, irrepressible ball of fury, eager to fix a problem and on the verge of making it worse. He’s abrasive, clumsy and a little bit fearsome. In other words: He’s in a Safdie brothers movie.

Anyone familiar with the sibling directors from their dreary NYC junkie drama “Heaven Knows What” or gritty urban comedy “Daddy Longlegs” knows how the brothers have assembled a universe of grimy characters enmeshed in bizarre, dangerous circumstances that can seem at once naturalistic and surreal. With “Good Time,” they transform that focus into a Kafkaesque heist movie, populated by maniacal characters careening through Queens on...

One of my most anticipated films of the summer is Josh and Benny Safdie’s Good Time, which premieres in a few days in the Main Competition of the Cannes Film Festival. The first trailer has just dropped from A24, and it shows Robert Pattinson as a bank robber trying to get his accomplice — his brother, played by Benny Safdie — sprung from Rikers Island. Jennifer Jason Leigh appears as well as Buddy Duress, who co-starred in the Safdies’ previous Heaven Knows What. It’s a heartbreaker of a trailer scored to an original song by Oneohtrix Point Never and Iggy […]...

Ahead of its World Premiere as a Competition title at this year’s 70th Annual Cannes Film Festival, A24 Films has released the first trailer for Good Time starring Robert Pattinson in a career-defining performance.

Good Time is a psychotic symphony of propulsive intensity crafted by two of the most exciting young directors working today. Josh and Ben Safdie’s transcendent vision is an intoxicating portrait of desperation and destruction that will not be soon forgotten.

Following the mind-bending Heaven Knows What, celebrated filmmakers Josh and Ben Safdie return to the mean streets of New York City with Good Time, a hypnotic crime thriller that explores with bracing immediacy the tragic sway of family and fate.

After a botched bank robbery lands his younger brother in prison, Constantine Nikas (Robert Pattinson) embarks on a twisted odyssey through the city’s underworld in an increasingly desperate—and dangerous—attempt to get his brother out of jail.

A24 will release Good Time on August 11, 2017. The film, from Josh & Benny Safdie, will make its World Premiere as a Competition title at this year’s 70th Annual Cannes Film Festival. The film stars Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Buddy Duress and Barkhad Abdi.

Following the mind-bending Heaven Knows What, celebrated filmmakers Josh and Ben Safdie return to the mean streets of New York City with Good Time, a hypnotic crime thriller that explores with bracing immediacy the tragic sway of family and fate.

After a botched bank robbery lands his younger brother in prison, Constantine Nikas (Robert Pattinson) embarks on a twisted odyssey through the city’s underworld in an increasingly desperate—and dangerous—attempt to get his brother out of jail. Over the course of one adrenalized night, Constantine finds himself on a mad descent into violence and mayhem as he races against the clock to save his brother and himself,...

With it having been about five years since Aki Kaurismäki‘s last picture — the great and greater-than-you-remember Le Havre — we’ve been hoping to hear something, anything about what the Finnish helmer’s been planning. Today, then, is a welcome one: while speaking to TV-Maalima (via Cineuropa), it was revealed that he’ll next take on Refugee, a spiritual successor to Le Havre and the second installment in his “trilogy focusing on port cities.”

Little is known, except that Kaurismäki has very recently been sparked by the migrant crisis developing in Tornio, Finland. From these events, he’s shaped a tale concerning a young refugee (to be played by an actor of Syrian or Iraqi descent) and, as portrayed by regular collaborator Sakari Kuosmanen, “a former travelling salesman who has become a poker player and now a restaurateur.” Compare this to Le Havre, which followed an African refugee and an...

The story of how the directorial brothers Benny and Joshua Safdie found their muse and star, Arielle Holmes, for their latest feature seems like a shadowy tale from a gritty Craigslist missed connection. After Joshua and their producer Sebastian Bear-McClard spotted her on a subway platform while working undercover for research on an abandoned genre film, they approached her. A subsequent series of no call, no shows seemed like a dead end, but then Holmes reached out, admitting that she’d been homeless, out of touch and had recently attempted to take her own life and was just recently released from the hospital. Since then, her life has been transformed since Heaven Knows What became a festival hit, winning the C.I.C.A.E. Award in Venice and the Tokyo Grand Prix and Best Director prizes at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Riding a wave of critical acclaim despite its white knuckled edge,...

From the streets to the screen, the unbelievable story of Arielle Holmes is a fascinating example of the rare occurrence when cinema and reality blend almost unnoticeably. New York-based filmmaker duo Josh and Benny Safdie followed Holmes story from her days as a heroin addict living destructively to her film debut starring as a version of herself in a film based on a book she wrote about those very experiences. To call it a miraculous story would be to minimize it, because it's even more improbable than it sounds. Once again, reality overpowers fiction.

Enthralled by Holmes, the Safdie brothers decided to make a film about her life and have her star in it, a choice that might seem risky for some but that felt absolutely correct for the filmmaking team. The result is “Heaven Knows What” an exquisitely raw and ferociously truthful film about people lost in a corrosive lifestyle. Drug addiction and emotional dependency go hand in hand as Harley (Arielle Holmes) tries to regain her boyfriend’s love while finding ways to support her habit and stay alive. Humanizing their characters while never condoning or passing judgment, the directors explore the realities of their lives with a documentary-like visual style that is as vivid as it is heart-wrenching.

An accomplishment both in technique and emotional power, “Heaven Knows What” is an eye-opening experience brimming with unflinching truth. We had the chance to talk to the Safdie team about their latest film and how they manage to put so much of the real world into each frame.

Aguilar: Arielle Holmes is evidently the driving force of this incredibly truthful and bold project. At what point in her journey did you meet her? How did you find her and her story and decided to make a film about it?

Josh Safdie: I found Arielle, that’s what happened really. I was doing research in the Diamond District. I was there for like a year and a half and I thought I knew every person who was a part of the fabric of that street, which is 47th between 5th and 6th, in Manhattan, New York.

One day at the end of the workday I went to the subway with my producer Sebastian Bear-McClard and saw Arielle. When I saw her she was dressed in a really nice dress, which I later found out she spent all of her money on, and she appeared clean because she’d washed herself in a public bathroom that morning. She woke up that morning on the steps of a Buddhist church.

At the time she paid for her habit and for her dress moonlighting as a dominatrix at a place called Pandora’s box. I knew none of this when I met her, all I knew was this was a beautiful girl who had real composure to her and who had a real star quality to her. I wanted to try to find a way to put her in this other movie we were trying to do, but when I met up with her to get to know her better, I soon realized that she had a very different life.

It was the one you see in the film, and we didn’t agree to make this movie until months later. I knew her when she attempted to kill herself, it happened in the time span of me getting to know her. I was just trying to hook her up with other jobs and just be her friend, and I eventfully asked her to start writing about her life. I directed the writing and I paid for it. The book is pretty special, she wrote most of it in Apple stores.

Aguilar: Once you were so invested in her story, was it a logical step to have her star in the film?

Benny Safdie: It was logical

Josh Safdie: Yes, we wanted to make the movie because of her.

Aguilar: Did you have any concerns about the fact that she probably had never acted before?

Josh Safdie: No. Never. That’s not unusual for us. She was a star, we just needed to figure out a way to work with her star quality and find her greatest strengths during the rehearsal period. We put her on camera a lot before we started filming to see how she acted with the camera. We actually found that the more regimen we gave her the better she was. If we just turned on the camera and have her improvise it was Ok, but she needed the structure of a script to be even better.

Benny Safdie: She wanted to take her own emotions to another level.

Aguilar: She is incredible in the film. Is this perhaps her first film of many to come?

Josh Safdie: She did another film in the wintertime, a Sci-Fi, and right now she is acting in another one, a big one.

Aguilar: The rest of the cast is also outstanding. Was there a mix of professionals actors and non-actors? They are all so great is impossible to differentiate.

Josh Safdie: Caleb Landry Jones, who plays Ilya, is an actor. He’s been in “X-Men,” “Byzantium,” “Antiviral,” and others, he is a young Hollywood actor who was introduced to me through one of our casting directors Jennifer Venditti. He was by far the most professional. Then there was Eleonore Hendricks who played a very small role as Erica. Buddy Duress, who played Mike, the dealer, was a real revelation to us. He blew us away with his rawness and his energy. He got arrested the day we finished filming the movie and he was in jail for a year, now he is out and he is in an acting class and he is doing pretty great. He was like a street legend, everyone knew him in the streets, and he’d been in and out of jail his whole life. Oddly enough we had a similar upbringing, so I could have easily made the left when he made the left, instead a made a right, and did what I ended doing. Now I think that he will hopefully make the right. Necro, who plays Skully, is a pretty big underground rapper, who I was a big fan of.

Aguilar: The entire cast disappears completely into their roles. It’s hard to even think these are actors playing a part.

Benny Safdie: The goal is to make it seem like nothing has been done.

Josh Safdie: Testament to the success of the film is when people see the film and think Buddy, playing Mike, is the big professional in the movie. Everyone hears “Oh, there is a big actor in the movie,” because Caleb has a real following, but when people see the movie they think Caleb is the non-professional actor and Buddy is the professional. That’s a real testament to Caleb’s performance as well.

Benny Safdie: It’s a matter of complete immersion into the fabric of that world, and accepting it. At the same it’s also about mixing the professionals and the firs-time actors. We use improvisation as a form of getting the people’s language right. We use it as a tool to get the dialogue perfect. It always sound better when it’s coming from someone’s own voice as opposed to from above, from us. If somebody doesn’t feel comfortable saying it a certain way we change it, and then that makes that person more comfortable.

Aguilar: Surely Arielle’s own experiences informed a lot of your choices. Did she ever come to you and say, “This didn’t happen that way” or “This doesn’t sound right”?

Josh Safdie: That’s funny because when she said that, most of the time it was in accordance to whether or not something happened the way it should have in real life, and we had changed it because it needed to be changed so that somebody watching the movie could feel how she felt. But then that actually helped her because when she started understanding the reasoning behind it and it made her acting even better. She realized, “Ok, I can make myself emotional more extreme to get the point across.”

Aguilar: Shooting a film like this in NYC was probably a great challenge. Did you guys shoot inconspicuously or on the fly to get such a realist and raw visual style?

Josh Safdie: No, it was all very structured because we were shooting a lot of our close-ups from a block away. There was not much freedom to the movements of the actors. Some scenes we did like 13 or 14 takes, sometimes we shot scenes twice. We would shoot them and then we would go back to the same location on another day when we had some free time. We would reshoot the scene if after watching the dailies we felt like it wasn’t quite right.

Benny Safdie: In New York you are not allowed to shoot without a permit if you have a tripod. We pretty much shot the whole movie with tripods or Steadicam, and if you have something like that on the street you need to legally have a permit or you’ll get stopped. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without it, so we had to be very regimented with how we shot just based on the equipment we were using. We had that restriction upon us and for the actors, like Josh said, they had to be on their marks perfectly or else we’d miss it.

Aguilar: The constraints are definitley not noticeable, the city feels and the characters feel completely free.

Josh Safdie: We did not block the sidewalks. we allowed the city to exist as the city, we were just using it to our advantage.

Benny Safdie: At some point you let the city live within the frame and let the actors live on their own within that circle, and it all kind of folds into itself.

Aguilar: Tell me about the film’s structure. The way it starts and the way it ends, it feels like an endless cycle in a sense.

Josh Safdie: That’s the cycle of the lifestyle. You kind of can’t get out of it, it’s almost impossible to get out of it. The reality of that lifestyle is that the two ways out are usually prison or death, or you get cast in a movie and you make that movie [Laughs]. Ariel Pink, a great musician who did a song for the movie and who was also in the film at one point, came to the L.A. premier at AFI Fest, and someone asked him about heroin and his reply was, “ You do heroin and get a movie made out of you.” He said it as a joke because he is a cynical guy, but it’s very rare to get out. Breaks don’t usually come, they are few and far between, and there are a lot of people who are stuck in that lifestyle. It takes a lot of courage to get out of it, and a lot of will power. It’s a trap.

Benny Safdie: It’s a physical addiction to the drug, and then there is the mental addiction to this lifestyle that you think you are living.

Aguilar: It is a lifestyle. Even as chaotic as their lives seem, they do have a certain structure and specific patterns and things they have to do to continue living this way.

Benny Safdie: Exactly, it’s just a different structure. It’s not the one that we follow, but it is a structure. We were just talking about the rent that they have to pay, it's only $15, for the tow of them that’s $30 a night, that’s cheap, that’s nothing. But $30 a night, that’s $900 a month, with that money you can find yourself a pretty descent room.

Josh Safdie: That’s without mentioning their habit, which adds to thousands of dollars a year.

Benny Safdie: And also, who would rent a room to somebody like that? At the same time that’s a lot of money that they are raising, that they are earning by having to get up 8:00 to make sure that they make the morning rush.

Aguilar: The music in the film is something that I really enjoyed and that feels cohesive with the story being told, in particular the ominous track that includes the lyrics, “explore the power of the mind.”

Josh Safdie: That’s funny because there are two pieces of music in the movie that are from Arielle’s life, which her boyfriend, the real Ilya, and Arielle turned me on to. It’s hardstyle music, it’s from a very hardcore electronic scene, and it’s by a very famous DJ called Headhunterz. There is also a big movement in Australia called Melbourne shuffle, which is basically like punk and stomp out music, except that it’s hardcore electronic, but it’s also very beautiful and classical. I consider it to be “Invincible music,” it makes you feel like you are invincible when you listen to it, it’s superhero music. The piece of music you mention, we always say that is diagetic because it’s inside of her head, the movie is just hearing what’s inside of her head.

Benny Safdie: When that track comes in it’s very different than when the music is playing in the beginning of the movie. It comes in and it’s so motivated by what’s happening on screen. It might as well be the sound effects from the park, they are interchangeable.

Aguilar: Did you guys look at any other films that depict addiction to see how it has been represented before?

Josh Safdie: No, we looked to that world itself. If we were looking for any inspiration or any way to be guided, we looked to the world and the characters themselves.

Benny Safdie: We knew there were some pitfalls that other films fall into not just by accident but by the nature of making a movie about somebody who loves a drug. We had conversations about how to film the shooting of the drug, and how to shoot the drug in certain ways to avoid glorifying it, or fetishizing it.

Aguilar: On a more specific note, the film premiered in 2014, but for the theatrical release you include a note in the credits dedicating the film to the real life Ilya, who sadly passed away this year. Is what we see in the film Arielle's premonition?

Josh Safdie: In her writings, Arielle mentions she had a vision in which he had died. She thought he was dead, but in reality he wasn’t. He was in a fire, and he survived the fire. The irony is that Ilya died on April 12th this year under different circumstances.

Benny Safdie: It’s very strange.

Aguilar: The way you approach the subject is so truthful and uncompromising, were you ever concern about audiences having an uncomfortable reaction or that it could be perceived as provocative?

Josh Safdie: I never feel uncomfortable, or dark or heavy. I’m actually very excited by everything in the movie because I kind of previewed a little bit of the mindset that the characters have. I never saw the movie as dark. It is what it is.

"Heaven Knows What" is now playing in Los Angeles at the Acrlight Hollywood and in NYC at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema...

Venice — The days of The Panic in Needle Park, to name one iconic New York City drug movie, seem long gone, now that most of Manhattan’s one-time junkie hangouts have been gentrified to within an inch of their lives. But in Heaven Knows What, Josh and Benny Safdie rescue that subculture from the invisible margins. They weave a small group of young heroin addicts into the fabric of the city streets with a grubby lyricism that’s visually intoxicating even if its emotional impact remains somewhat muted.

Following their detour into unconventional sports documentary with Lenny Cooke, the sibling filmmaker team returns to the scruffy aesthetic, raw authenticity and unstrung characters of their first feature, Daddy Longlegs.

Their new slice of life on the fringes is often hard to watch due to the pain, self-destructiveness and even the numbing Warholian monotony of the existences it depicts with a verite...