'God's Time' Review: Frenetic NYC Buddy Caper Marks Fresh Debut from Daniel Antebi
God’s Time
NR
Runtime: 1 Hr and 23 Minutes
Production Companies: Raven Capital Management, Topic Studios, Voyager, Watch This Ready
Distributor: IFC Films
Director: Daniel Antebi
Writer: Daniel Antebi
Cast: Ben Groh, Dion Costelloe, Liz Caribel Sierra, Jared Abrahamson, Christiane Seidel
Release Date: February 24, 2023
In Theaters and On Demand
The past few years saw many indie filmmakers basing their features on our bleak COVID-era reality. I felt my soul withering away at many festivals with each COVID-related movie. I hit a wall at SXSW 2021, where five films revolved around the pandemic. Only a select few narratives did something inventive with the dreadful era. Last year at Tribeca Film Festival, I screened Daniel Antebi’s God’s Time, a buddy comedy using COVID-era NYC as the setting for a frivolous buddy caper about addiction and love.
In early-pandemic NYC, you meet Dev (Ben Groh) and Luca (Dion Costelloe), two halves of a full idiot. Luca’s a struggling actor, and Dev tags along to auditions to help him with his scenes. The two are also recovering drug addicts who attend the same group recovery counseling. Dev pines over fellow counseling member Regina (Liz Caribel Sierra). She’s a passionate, quick-witted woman who often shares that her ex-boyfriend left her scorned and even took her dog. Dev always picks up her trademark “God’s Time” at the end of her monologues. The one time she doesn’t say it, instead sharing her intentions to kill her ex, Dev takes it literally. Dev convinces Luca, who has secretly been seeing Regina, that she’s going to do the deed. Together, the two run around town to find their crush and prevent her from killing her ex. Alas, chaos and a series of unfortunate events ensue.
With his direction, Antebi sets a unique rhythm as bustling and buoyant as the city itself. Setting the camera as a first-person character that other characters interact with, the egotistical and quick-witted Dev doubles as a guidebook and an unreliable narrator. His self-centered tangents and delusions of grandeur with millennial Instagram influencer imagery are overwhelming. Thankfully, Dev’s fourth wall breaks are paired with a suitable score by Brian Reitzell, adding to the swiftness of the pacing.
As Dev and Luca begin their mission, Antebi unloads a fast-paced visual style full of quick zooms and whip-panned transitions, which had me genuinely gripped in their adventure. For this being his debut, Antebi channels bits of early Spike Lee grit and the Safdie brothers, balancing a stressful, uneasy atmosphere with quirky characters who are entertaining enough to hold their own.
The film provides some fresh talent with Ben Groh, Dion Costelloe, and Liz Caribel Sierra. Groh and Costelloe deliver your familiar pairing of a self-centered best friend with a chill straight man archetype. Granted, Dev tends to get under your skin with his egotistical demeanor, but Groh has a charming confidence and charisma that wins you over. The chemistry between him and the laid-back Costelloe drives the story, with their witty banter amping up the sharp comedic beats. Liz Caribel Sierra is the powerhouse debut performance worth the price of admission. From the moment she tells the tale of her devious ex-boyfriend, you are as wrapped around her finger as the oblivious dunderheads pursuing her. Caribel Sierra sells the scene with a passionate delivery and unapologetic grit as a new femme fatale with a “fuck up your shit" energy. Regina is playing chess as Dev and Luca are playing checkers, and she eats up every moment she’s onscreen.
God’s Time is a lot of fun, yet the more time you spend with its ensemble of quirky, unlikable characters (all reminiscent of a Danny Antonucci cartoon), the less engaged you are with the leads’ misadventure. The chaos is at a high, but sometimes the character writing—particularly Dev—is too shallow in an annoying way. As a fan of the unreliable narrator story mechanic, Dev’s shallowness is over-the-top and detracts from the comedic energy. His constant need for you to indulge him becomes exhausting, especially with the sensitive subject of addiction.
God’s Time is swift in its direction with notable acting debuts, particularly in Liz Caribel Sierra, that mark it as a fun NYC caper and solid feature debut from writer/director Daniel Antebi.
