The Nice Guys

It is 1977, the air is thick with smog and there is a massive campaign to bring the Detroit auto makers to justice over their collusion and suppression of the Catalytic Converter and the polluting of LA air. Meanwhile, Pornstar Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio) crashes spectacularly into a house, an obvious case of driver error. However, when Holland March (Ryan Gosling) is approached by a client claiming to have seen her niece, the very same Misty Mountains, he gets mixed up that may drag into a dangerous underworld. A tip off leads Holland to Amelia Kutner (Margaret Qualley), a protester campaigning against the Detroit car makers. Concerned by this man following her, Amelia contacts Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) who beats up March, warning him to stay away from Amelia, however they both realise Misty Mountains' crash was no accident.

Shane Black's expertise lie solely within the buddy-cop/PI sub genre having wrote the first two Lethal Weapon movies and, later on his career, directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Since then and now he directed Iron Man 3 which got quite a lot of flak for a large twist that devalued an infamous marvel villain. With The Nice Guys he very much returns back to where he started with an action film that sets itself very comfortably within the late 70s and early 80s era with its neon style titles and vulgar central duos.

As Shane Black has frequently shown he is great at creating quick witted characters, all of whose quips and comebacks are sharp and snappy as each others. He displayed this most recently in Iron Man 3 where Iron Man's relationship and quick-witted banter with Ty Simpkin's (whose also in this film as the kid taking a sneak peak at Misty Mountains in a magazine) Harley Keener was the one the film's highlights.

In The Nice Guys, Black's highly witty script help both a gruff (and flabby) Russell Crowe and buffoonish Ryan Gosling (who shows some great comedic chops) build an effect rapport that allows them to bounce effortlessly off each other. The central stars effective chemistry ensures that the film is an inherently watchable one and the film's subtler gags means that its a film suitable for repeat viewings. Angourie Rice, who plays Holland's daughter Holly, also gets in on the act with a great performance of her own.

One of the more difficult challenges in making a film that blends comedy and action (with a dollop of neo-nior) is writing a plot that's able to have enough depth so that the film doesn't solely rely on comedy. It's a difficult task but Shane Black's neo-nior script about a conspiracy involving the dirty LA air and the LA porn circuit has enough weight to sustain the movie's running time (it's one that certainly channels the likes of LA Confidential and Chinatown). Referencing these two classic LA stories can always be a risk as comparisons will always be made, but Shane Black creates an intriguing story of conspiracy, sabotage and murder that hardly seems to falter in providing both a good story and plenty of well timed jokes.

4/5