Safdie brothers' Good Time with Robert Pattinson draws praise for the Festival's new kids on the block

Josh and Benny Safdie are the ambassadors of the new generation of New York film makers at the Cannes Film Festival this year with their Palm entry Good Time.

Robert Pattinson as Constantine in Good Time directed by Joshua and Benny Safdie, 2017

Good Time is a thriller filmed on the streets of New York, in Queens' and in Brooklyn, starring British actor Robert Pattinson.

It's a thriller about two brothers who rob a bank. One of them, Nick, played dangerously by Benny Safdie, has various mental and physical health problems and ends up in jail.

Connie, Pattinson's character, spends the rest of the film trying to get his brother out of the notoriously tough Rilke's Island prison.

In so doing, he spends a wild night running from the police, and has brushes with various sleazy characters as well as a young 'hood teenager, played by Taliah Webster. In real life, the mega star Pattinson has more trouble escaping paparazzi, even disguised as an NYC hoodie.

During the shoot,he confided, "a make-up artist made pock marks on my face, and in the subway people didn't recognise me. Even with a 35mm camera next to me. Josh (Safdie) was sending me his directions by text message!"

It's the first time the Safdie brothers have made it into the official Cannes Film Festival competition. Their smoothly scripted high-energy action in Good Time, Benny Safdie's portrayal of the simmering Nick, and music by Point Never Oneothrix, with help from Iggy Pop, has aleady earned them and Pattinson broad praise from critics here.