Monday, May 23, 2016

Review: The Nice Guys

by Patrick Bromley
The Nice Guys gets us back to Black!

Listen: I like Iron Man 3 enough and both admire and appreciate that Marvel not only hired Shane Black to write and direct it (even if they did force him to make the villain male instead of female to sell more toys), but even allowed him to make something that feels a lot like a Shane Black movie within the framework of a massive superhero blockbuster. But The Nice Guys brings back the Shane Black that I have loved since seeing the original Lethal Weapon back in 1987: tough, funny, violent profane, impossibly cynical. It is, in so many ways, the same movie Shane Black has made several times before: a pair of mismatched men (one of them a P.I.) join forces to investigate a case that takes a number of dark and unexpected turns. Sex work is eventually involved. There is a precocious kid. Los Angeles is demonized. Christmas is referenced. Some will accuse the movie of being overly familiar after Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. This is not something about which I can complain. I could watch Shane Black do variations on a theme for 50 movies.
Russell Crowe plays Jack Healy, a tough guy for hire who gets paid to beat people up and put fear into them -- essentially Bud White circa 1977, minus the badge. He's hired by a young girl named Amelia (Margaret Qualley) to scare off some guys who have been following her, one of whom happens to be Holland March (Ryan Gosling), a private detective, single father and alcoholic fuckup who's trying to find Amelia as a means of looking into the recent death of a porn star. Realizing they're after the same thing, Healy and March team up to find the girl and crack the case, which takes directions neither of them could ever have seen coming.

I love The Nice Guys because I love Shane Black movies, and this is, in many ways, the ultimate Shane Black movie. Though at first it feels like it's coasting along on our familiarity with his style of writing (he co-wrote the screenplay alongside Anthony Bagarozzi), it gradually evolves into something deeper: another of his treatises on the bonds between men, but also an examination of masculinity and story of corruption so dark and cynical it warrants comparison to Chinatown, a statement I don't make lightly. The choice to set the movie in 1977 isn't just about the wardrobe and the art direction and the soundtrack. It's about showing a character afraid of killer bees and trying to smash them because he doesn't yet know that one day bees will be endangered, threatening to fuck our entire ecosystem in the process. There are lines at the gas pumps and characters in power devoted to protecting the auto industry despite the fact that it's poisoning everyone.
All of this substance is deftly woven into a very entertaining buddy movie, meaning you could reasonably be forgiven for letting the film's messaging breeze past you in the service of enjoying the banter, the performances and the twisty mystery, which is just interesting enough to string us along without really being the point of The Nice Guys. I can easily imagine a huge section of the audience for the movie dismissing it as boilerplate Shane Black and overlooking the depth on display. That's ok. The boilerplate Shane Black is what makes the movie good. The depth is what makes it great. There are few contemporary filmmakers who breathe film noir quite as well as Shane Black does; he understands and embraces the classical conventions of the genre but still updates them so the movie is more than just some retro throwback exercise.

Russell Crowe is looser and more likable here than he has been in 20 years -- maybe ever? -- but the real surprise is Ryan Gosling, an actor we've come to associate with brooding intensity but who proves to be really, really funny in his role as hard-drinking, seemingly indestructible Holland March. The dynamic between the two is very similar to the one between Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but Gosling's energy is different -- more relaxed, less twitchy, and grounded in the relationship between March and his daughter, the young girl who inspires both men to be better versions of themselves. The precocious kid tends to be a pet peeve of mine, particularly in genre films when I prefer to lose myself in harder-edged stuff and don't want to keep pulling back and worrying about what a child is seeing or hearing. Black gets that, and while he certainly romanticizes the idea of the young girl who gets flawed men to walk the straight and narrow, he's not above throwing a kid through a window.
After all, this is a Shane Black movie, so despite its leanings towards the warm and fuzzy it's still a film in which a character going back to drinking is considered a happy ending. His dialogue is as cutting and funny as ever, and his time at Marvel has sharpened his skills at staging action (some of the best moments of which are spoiled in the movie's red-band trailer, so stay away from that if you haven't already seen it). I won't call it his most accomplished movie, but it is the best mix of his talents as a director blending with his legendary voice as a writer. It could be argued that at this point he has made a movie appealing only to Shane Black fans. I'm on board with this for two reasons: a) I am a Shane Black fan and b) everyone else should be, too.

8 comments:

  1. Awesome review! One movie that has always been a litmus test is The Last Boy Scout. I feel like if you get that movie, you know who I am. It is on my top 3 of all time. The dialogue he writes in that movie is everything I want in a movie. This movie made feel just like I feel when I watch that movie. I'm a person that thinks the best Iron Man is the 3rd. I still like Last Action Hero. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is probably in my top 40 of all time. The Long Kiss Goodnight is very underrated. The Monster Squad is in my top 6. Shane Black is my hero.

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    1. So The Last Boy Scout rates a 3 on your finger scale?

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    2. My wife's name is Sarah and instead of telling her I love her, I say "Fuck you, Sarah. If the cops weren't here, I'd spit in your face."

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    3. "Fuck you, Joe. I was lonely!"

      "Buy a dog".

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  2. The Nice Guys is probably the most fun I've had in a movie theater this year. It also put me on a Shane Black bender. Now playing The Last Boy Scout. May have to follow up with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and/or The Long Kiss Goodnight (yay for Finland!).

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  3. Absolutely a fun movie. Coming off Iron Man 3 and some of the criticisms that movie received, a lesser director might not have come back with the same confidence Shane Black shows here.

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  4. Such a fun movie. I'm a recent Shane Black fan (thanks to F This Movie!) and was really excited that he had a new movie coming out while I was working through his filmography and The Nice Guys did not disappoint. I was a little apprehensive that it would be one of those pointless period movies, but it justified its '70s setting. Like you, I was surprised at Gosling's knack for comedy and hope to see more of it.

    So, Patrick has been lamenting the dearth of good dialogue in recent movies (I'm certain that's exactly 100% how he phrases it, too), but Shane Black movies really buck that trend. Serious question: What other writers (besides Tarantino) are known for creating entertaining, memorable dialogue?

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    1. David Mamet and Aaron Sorkin are both justifiably well-regarded for their (often styilized but still excellent) dialogue. If you haven't seen Mamet's State & Main, consider this a hearty recommendation.

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