Nice Guys. Równi goście

Laurel, Hardy and the mystery of the lost porn film. Gosling has never been so funny and so irresistible at the same time. Though his nihilistic private detective is a bit of an imbecile and very much an alcoholic who confuses dream with reality and “eunuch” with “Munich,” every once in a while, when the muse enlightens him, he is capable of leaving those around him momentarily speechless. In a film driven mainly by verbal shootouts between two or three characters, something like this logically does not happen often, but the wordless (splatter) slapstick scenes put Black’s growing directorial mastery on full display. There are some very funny situations (e.g. the opening scene with the speeding car) that don’t grab our attention, but instead leave us to find them in the shot on our own. Black also shows the same confidence in the viewer’s intellect in the unexpected conclusions of expected scenes. People die without any warning, characters often behave with more recklessness or brutality than is normal in Hollywood genre films (there is even violence against children) and they make a wrong or even utterly stupid decisions and have to bear the consequences. Essential revelations are made thanks to chance or the incompetence of the characters rather than through focused data collection and analysis. The sudden yet convincing changes in tone will also make you care about Gosling and the other characters. Black knows when it is appropriate to put on a serious face and thus reinforce our sympathy for the protagonists, yet he hardly ever moralises while snuffing out any inclination toward pathos or subordination to the demands of the individual characters’ backstory (during a serious dialogue about heroism, for example, one of the characters unashamedly cracks up), and offers only the line “At least you’re drinking again” as a band-aid on a disillusioning (and thus properly noirish) climax. I am not at all bothered by the fact that Black has been writing basically the same thing since Lethal Weapon, which is to say comedic noir detective stories about a duo of cynical cowboys whose lives are in shambles and they are forced to get their shit together, as long as it continues to be as entertaining and distinctly different from whatever else Hollywood is churning out, which – with a few honourable exceptions (e.g. Deadpool) –  has yet to attain a similarly mature capacity for self-reflection that doesn’t draw interest away from the characters. From a commercial perspective, The Nice Guys will probably be a negligible intermezzo for Black before the Predator reboot. From the perspective of the pleasure that it brings to cinephiles, however, it is the film of the year so far. 90% (25.05.2016)

Russel Crowe and Ryan Gosling were born for roles like these. They make fun of themselves, but not in a very obvious way. That’s what the movie itself is like. It is funny, but at the same time isn’t primarily about the humor, it is rather a typical detective story from the 1970s. However, when there is a hilarious scene it has such an impact that you will want to rewatch it a couple of times after the first viewing. During the remainder of the time, you hope for something mindblowing to come any minute now and so you are observing, lurking, and you appreciate every moment that makes you laugh. Every joke is actually filmed so originally that the ending will make you sad. Even though I wasn’t that impressed with the first half of the crime story, the second half was a lot better. But the humor reigned for the whole 2 hours. I even have a feeling that you will not find a funnier movie from the year 2016. (21.12.2016)

Black is a wisecracker and he knows how to write characters, fully humanize them, and then let them sprinkle (not only) verbal humor in dialogue exchanges that make the audience squirm. Yet the entire film is covered by such a terribly lame and in many moments transparent crime plot that it wouldn't even hold up as a retro episode of CSI. If the investigative aspects hadn't been taken so seriously (a take on so many strong social themes) and had settled for more self-deprecating silliness, it would be a genre perennial. [It dissipated quickly the day after I watched it.] 3 ½. (25.05.2016)

I feel sorry for not giving this nice chill-out movie four stars, but if you’ve seen the best of Shane Black, you’d know he didn’t hit the bull’s eye with this one. The Crowe/Gosling duo is great, their catchphrases are cool and the atmosphere of 1980s L.A. might be the best since L.A. Confidential. But the plot the guys are dealing with is watery and uninteresting, barely even there. (09.08.2016)

I got what I wanted. But it's worth remembering that Shane Black, who wrote The Last Boy Scout, was twenty-five years younger, so The Nice Guys is closer to his directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang than to the rampage of Joe Hallenbeck and Jimmy Dix. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are a bit off as the detectives most of the time and usually don't really know who's shooting at them and why, but Black is understandably in complete control of the whole situation and lays his cards on the table at the right time. The whole thing is endearingly goofy though, so not only do the protagonists have no idea what's going on around them at times, but Black is able to afford some very campy (and great) action scenes full of ideas, bizarre jokes and punchlines you wouldn't expect. The Nice Guys is a smart crime drama, but one that wants to do things a little differently and isn't afraid to rely on mostly pretty gritty and cynical humour alongside the honest battles and shootouts, playing with audience expectations and making it entertaining to the last minute. You'll never know what Black will pull on you in the next scene. You just know it's going to be great. (15.05.2017)