[rating=9.00]
Shane Black knows buddy comedies. To look through his career is to see a retrospective of the best modern incarnations of this classic set up. He established a new status quo with Lethal Weapon in the 1980’s, the success of which provided him a wave to ride that stretches into the modern day. Rather than just rest on his laurels, however, he’s constantly tried to take the established formula—two unlikely heroes meet and save the day despite themselves—in new directions, consistently changing the concept of what a buddy movie can and should be.
2005’s Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was arguably peak Black. Not only did that movie single handedly reinvigorate the career of former Hollywood bad boy Robert Downey Jr., paving the way for his current success as Iron Man, it also reminded us that Val Kilmer was a great actor when he wanted to be. It was whip smart, face paced, tautly plotted, and fucking hilarious. It’s a hard act to beat for any screenwriter/director. But he threatens to do just that with his latest buddy comedy deconstruction, The Nice Guys.
Playing on noir tropes, The Nice Guys follows strong-arm-for-hire Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) as he’s drawn into the world of hapless private detective Holland March (Ryan Gosling). Originally hired to keep March from looking into the disappearance of a young girl, Amelia Kuttner (Margaret Qualley), the two find themselves embroiled in the seedy underbelly of 1970’s Los Angeles, neck deep in a mystery involving murder, pornography, environmentalism, corporate collusion, and government corruption.
As usual, Black, who wrote and directed The Nice Guys, plays with the familiar to create something new and unique. It will, no doubt, garner comparisons to Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, and it’s undeniable that the two share some of the same DNA. It’s not exactly unfair to call it a “spiritual sequel” to its predecessor—both involve mysteries in the Hollywood scene being investigated by an unlikely pair who are arguably in way over their heads.
That, of course, is sort of Black’s wheelhouse. He’s proven himself to be a master of the formula time and time again and, as ever, he pushes the boundaries of what the formula is capable of with a breathless ease. Almost too slowly to notice, the film descends into the bowels of madcappery, spiraling deeper and deeper into the depths of absurdity without ever going overboard.
It’s a delicate balance, one maintained by sharply written dialogue delivered beautifully by the film’s stars. Somehow, Crowe and Gosling become an adept comedic pair, playing to the strengths and weaknesses of each other to become a cohesive unit. Crowe is the perfect straight man to Gosling; Gosling is the perfect balance to Crowe’s dour façade. Each of the film’s main stars delivers a stunning performance that’s bitingly hilarious. What’s interesting, however, is how well the comedy plays into the noir tropes that form the most interesting parts of the narrative.
At its heart, The Nice Guys is a mystery worthy of Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler. The film twists and turns, but never so abruptly that it causes narrative whiplash. The case unfolds slowly, its many threads coming together with calculated effort without ever pulling the rug out from its audiences. At no point does the audience or the film’s characters ever know more than the other; we learn things as our hard-nosed dicks do, allowing us to participate in the unraveling of the case and its intricate tapestry.
Still, despite its tautly crafted exploration of the hardened detective tropes, the film is absolutely hilarious. It begs rewatches not just to gain more insight into its nuance, but to see everything you missed during the time you spent laughing. It’s truly a testament to Black’s talents that the film is so deftly able to walk its lines. Neither the film’s comedy nor its mystery ever play second fiddle to the other. The movie is equally both to the benefit of both, rather than one at the other’s expense.
There aren’t a lot of filmmakers working today that can handle that balance. Thank god for Black. His is a well-honed talent that is, in many respects, unequaled in today’s climate. As both a screenwriter and director, Black’s proven himself capable of handling the intricacies of unique story-telling with a notable aplomb. The Nice Guys is a new peak for Black, taking the style he introduced with Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang to the next level. In time, I suspect it’ll be remembered as such; at the very least, it’ll make for some memorable discussion.
The Nice Guys is now playing in theaters everywhere.
