ScreeningNotes’s review published on Letterboxd:
"No one's better than any next man."
There seems to be a question running through this film and discussions of it about whether or not the protagonists are sympathetic. They keep making increasingly poor decisions, digging their own graves deeper and deeper, but the momentum and perspective of the film also seems to be grounded in the fact that we care for them, that we want to see them get out of this predicament they've gotten themselves into.
Everybody makes bad decisions. I made a series of bad decisions at the wedding we went to last weekend. I continually make bad decisions by smoking cigarettes and not working out as much as I should. I text people things that are embarrassing or stupid. I'm lazy. I don't advocate for myself the way I should. I only work part time. I procrastinate my writing, or give up or half-ass projects. There are a billion small bad decisions we all make every day; the difference for the characters in this film is that their bad decisions carry heavier consequences because they don't have the cushion of wealth to protect them. We're not better than these guys just because we don't fall as far when we make mistakes.
Obviously my brain is polluted with film noir at this point, but Good Time reminded me a lot of Quicksand: a desperate guy does something short-sighted in order to get some quick cash, and as a result he ends up in a self-destructive downward spiral towards his own inevitable doom. Poverty is a death trap that society makes it impossible to escape from.
Much hype for Uncut Gems