Empire State Of Mind

With their visceral crime drama good time, filmmakers josh and ben safdie become essential chroniclers of life on the fringes of New York city.

- Kenny Herzog

Neither Josh Safdie nor his brother Ben arrive punctually for our interview at their one-room Elara Pictures office in Manhattan’s Theater District. Ben, 31 and buttoned-down in a crisp checkered shirt, his face cleanshaven and wavy hair neatly in place, is first through the door. Panting, he pleads for sympathy for the demands of tending to his one-year-old son while promoting his new movie, Good Time. Josh, 33 and comparatively rumpled in an unpressed polo open at the neck, his likeness to Ben inscrutable beneath an untamed beard and unruly mane, bursts in a few minutes later. He’s flustered, having just raced over from checking out a potential new apartment.  

Even after living in New York City their entire lives, these Queens- and Manhattan-raised siblings still get stuck in the gears of its moving parts.