The Nice Guys: Written and Directed by Shane Black, Starring: Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe5/22/2016 Looking at the first hour of Shane Black’s excellent The Nice Guys from a purely analytical standpoint will not yield a big response beyond the initial “this is awesome,” and “hahahahahahahha” that comes with a buddy cop film. That’s before the mid act though. The first hour is breezy character build up that gets everything into place, and that’s ok for a film like this. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe are a bruiser and a P.I. that are on the track of a missing porn actress. It’s a fine idea to base a mystery in. The most important thing about using story elements like this is that it offers the taboo forces of the exploitation film to come fill in the rest of the worldbuilding that The Nice Guys has to offer. Sure, 70’s L.A. is probably as lovingly created as it’s ever going to get here, but it’s nice to see the tone of the exploitation actually playing a part in what makes this movie so well-crafted. Don’t get the surprisingly saccharine marketing wrong though, The Nice Guys is a bloody, sleazy little picture, and that sleaze gives it an unaccountable amount of character. For the first hour or so, the film is running on its character, mainly leaving it to Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, and the amazing newcomer Angourie Rice to keep the film going. This part of the movie is all set up, but it’s the good kind that doesn’t immediately reveal itself as such. Instead, it takes the route of being funny for the sake that: 1. The dialogue is actually really funny, 2. Crowe and Gosling are playing characters so close to their real life archetypes that you can immediately buy them as comic protagonists in the story, and 3. Writer/director Shane Black smartly leads the tone of the film into the almost meaningless energy-fueled vignettes that inform most of the surreal noirs out there. The art of exposition lies in the art of tricking the audience so that you’re not giving out exposition, and Black’s short clue gathering vignettes that slowly build the film up for its real punch make for an excellent distraction. The acting and the pacing are there, and the film could have probably survived on just that, even with the ever-prevalent fact that this is all exposition in one way or another hanging around in the background. That fact robs this section of the film of too much depth, but it all still comes together pretty excellently mainly on the shoulders of Gosling, Crowe, and the fact that the world that they occupy is really as interesting as the movie obviously thinks it is. But, that can’t stay forever. Soon, the film would have to buckle down and start revealing what’s actually happening, and with such a scattershot-vignette format, that part of the film could go either way. Fortunately, The Nice Guys actually gets both funnier and crazier when all this happens. The seedier aspects of the story really start to rear their heads, and the two straight men get caught up in something bigger than themselves. This part of the movie is sadistically satirical of everything about its own premise. Soon, it becomes almost a parody of Chinatown...while also paying off as satisfying as Chinatown. Many films feature third act blowouts, but not too many feature the converging excitement of a porno, a brutal fist fight, and a bumbling idiot trying to make sure something doesn’t get destroyed. Everything that doesn’t seem to cohere about The Nice Guys first hour comes blasting into relevance on the tail of its exploitation film inspiration. The large and exciting emotions that come from those only serve to boost the film’s satirical agenda (something that Gosling hilariously points out). The Nice Guys is the type of well-thought-out, intoxicating fare that should be appreciated. It’s a feverdream blend of hilarious buddy cop humor, archetypes of two of the greatest leading men of all time firing on all cylinders (quite literally most of the time), and explicit emotional passion of 70’s exploitation. It may seem a bit slight in its opening acts, but soon the true colors of the film are revealed, and it’s really, really nice guys. I give The Nice Guys a 9.5 out of 10.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archive
December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |