Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe are an odd-couple forced to team up in 1970s Los Angeles in Shane Black's black crime comedy. The writer/director has described it as a spiritual sequel to his own Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Down-on-his-luck private eye Holland March (Gosling) and hired leg-breaker Jackson Healy (Crowe) work together to solve the case of a missing girl and the seemingly unrelated death of a porn star. During their investigation, they uncover a shocking conspiracy that reaches up to the highest circles of power.
In a mainstream cinema landscape that often seems driven by concession – to the studio, the investors, the marketers, the distributors, certain demographics, the foreign market, the domestic market, the Stone Cutters – there are few things more satisfying than seeing a populist filmmaker getting to do exactly what he wants on a large canvas.
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An ultra-violent burlesque, the sort of cheerfully hostile buddy bash that’s been a staple since the ’80s, only this one is singularly clever about its own triviality...
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Ryan Gosling in a physical action-comedy? Whoever thought of the idea should be crowned genius of the year.
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Think of The Nice Guys as candy noir: all the key ingredients from mysteries such as Chinatown and The Long Goodbye poured into a tall glass, then topped up with sugar syrup...
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Even nostalgic nonsense requires more than attitude and energy, which is all that Mr. Black has to offer. And despite all its restless detective work... is unable to track down a soul or a reason for being.
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[Black] creates some outrageously contrived and protracted shootouts and one or two good old fashioned action explosions. But he also keeps the dialogue cracking along.
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They both have a keen feel for the throwaway line and Crowe's bearishness is a nice counterpoint to Gosling's doomed attempts to stay ahead of the game.
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There are even times when Black seems to be letting Crowe and Gosling make the whole thing up as they go along. Not a bad thing.
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Though the plot here may be a confusing, multi-threaded mess ... it's occasionally offset by the exuberance with which Black blends splatter and slapstick, and the leeway he grants his two very game leads.
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Gosling and Crowe have a surprisingly fizzy, ferret-and-bull chemistry, and the hedonistic Me Decade setting is groovy...
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