The Safdie Brothers have captured Hollywood’s attention. The pair of young filmmakers from the University of Chicago are masters of deceit, their characters lie to live and their stories deceive those who watch. Uncut Gems, following thematic suit, is the latest of their two feature films and has gained cinematic attention thanks to Adam Sandler and A24.
My favorite film from them, however, is Good Time. After robbing a bank, Connie Nikas gets separated from his mentally disabled brother, and watches helplessly as his brother gets arrested and taken to prison. Determined to get the money to post bail, Connie lies his way into twisted situations in a far-fetched attempt to save his brother.
The Safdie Brothers have an extraordinary sense in making an audience feel uneasy and uncertain. Discombobulation is the best way to describe this technique. They offer no more than a city in their opening scene, where a more mainstream piece would offer a city, a street, and a building. In order to break the rules of filmmaking there must be a purpose and with a rule broken meaningfully tone can be set. Good Time jumps from an establishing shot to close-up of a main character with the intent to disorient the viewer the same way the mentally handicapped brother is disoriented. The Safdie’s break rules to exemplify meaning, this adds layers to their filmmaking mainstream media fails to capture. Recent film sheds layers, character’s have become superficial as we digest their emotions.
The Safdie’s stray vastly from the exploitation of feelings in dialogue; the emotions their character’s are experiencing are conveyed through their filmmaking and thus impact audiences physically. Here lies the true ingenuity of the Safdie Brothers: the ability to convey emotion regardless of speech, to scramble the mind, race the heart, or portray anger through filmmaking.
Grant's Entertainment Review 