With the prestigious Cannes Film Festival wrapping up yesterday, the film industry got their first previews of new films and documentaries. This is the first big event of the year where buzz for major awards starts to pop up around certain films and actors. One of the actors getting Oscar buzz is Robert Pattinson, who most people know as Edward Cullen from The Twilight Saga. He is getting praise for his role in "Good Time." If it was not for Adam Sandler's Oscar buzz, Pattinson's chatter would likely be the most surprising coming out of Cannes.
What is 'Good Time'?
"Good Time" is a crime-drama film directed by brothers Benny and Josh Safdie. In the film, Robert Pattinson plays aimless bank robber Constantine "Connie" Nikas. Nikas is subjected to a series of unfortunate events following the arrest of his mentally handicapped brother Nick, played by Ben Safdie, following a bank robbery gone wrong. Nikas goes through these horrible events over the course of one night while trying to desperately get his brother out of jail and avoid the law at the same time. The movie also stars Barkhad Abdi, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Buddy Duress and Taliah Webster.
Pattinson's Oscar buzz
When "Good Time" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 25, it was met with rapturous reviews and received a six-minute standing ovation with screaming applause.
The movie is getting very good reviews with a 91% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 7.5 on IMDB and an 87 critic score on Metacritic. The movie was picked to compete for in the main competition for the Palme d'Or, the highest prize given out at Cannes. It did not win the Palme d'Or but did win the Cannes Soundtrack Award.
The Oscar buzz around Robert Pattinson is due to the praise being heaped on him by critics.
Variety's Guy Lodge called Pattinson's performance, "A career high" and "his most commanding performance to date." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian said it was "A strong, charismatic performance." Eric Kohn of Indiewire said it was a "career-best performance" and that Pattinson transformed "into a vain, reckless character driven beyond impossible odds."
Robert Pattinson was the favorite among many to win the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, but he ended up losing to Joaquin Phoenix for his performance in "You Were Never Really Here." Since his role as Edward Cullen in Twilight, Pattinson has mostly done low-budget arthouse films to try to stretch his acting abilities.
