Robert Pattinson

In Good Time (2017), Robert Pattinson’s Connie Nikas treats each bad plan as something everyone ought to understand. He speaks with enough certainty to make listening seem reasonable, although trusting him is another matter. Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie get a restless, funny performance from him, with the joke in how little Connie’s competence justifies his confidence. Editors Benny Safdie and Ronald Bronstein hurry us into the next difficulty before we can properly question the last decision.

His breakthrough as Edward Cullen in Twilight (2008) made him globally famous. The move towards independent films in the mid-2010s led to Good Time and the physically demanding The Lighthouse (2019). Tenet (2020) and The Batman (2022) brought studio work back alongside the independent films.

Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 (2025) makes the value of his physical choices clear. Pattinson gives one version of Mickey a thin, high voice and hunched shoulders; the other stands straight and meets people’s eyes. We were unexpectedly saddened by the early canteen scene, because his polite answer to another question about dying made the crew’s lack of concern hurt. The differences between the two men stop feeling like a performance trick almost immediately. The film’s baggy middle remains a problem, but he gives us reason to stay.

The Drama (2026) lets him be funny on a smaller scale. As Charlie, he keeps smiling and agreeing while visibly reconsidering what he has just agreed to, and Kristoffer Borgli’s retreat from the film’s difficult premise wastes some of that work. Lynne Ramsay gets something quieter in Die My Love (2025): his Jackson is decent, useless and slightly afraid. He suggests rest and buys a dog, and Pattinson makes those inadequate responses understandable without making them helpful.

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (2026) gives him another way to be unsettling. His Antinous exerts pressure through patience rather than brute force, and the restraint works. We would welcome more parts that ask so little visible fuss of him. Start with Good Time, provided a night spent following a persuasive man’s dreadful decisions sounds tolerable.