Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe (Daniel McFadden/Warner Bros. Pictures)
“Am I a good person”? Against a backdrop of pornography and violence in 1970s Los Angeles, the leading buddies of The Nice Guys each takes a moment to seek judgement from an arbiter of morality: 14-year old Holly (Angourie Rice). Her answer is no, even when it’s yes, but that doesn’t mean hired thug Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) and bumbling private detective (and Holly’s dad) Holland March (Ryan Gosling) aren’t nice guys. They’re just conflicted professionals caught in a morass of corruption—namely the movie they inhabit, and Los Angeles itself.
As The Nice Guys opens, an adolescent boy is sneaking into the kitchen one night, admiring an issue of the men’s magazine Cavalier with centerfold model Misty Mountains. Suddenly, headlights in the window behind him show a car that has careened off the road, plowing through trees and about to burst through the boy’s home. The kid wanders into the woods to find that the accident’s victim is none other than Misty Mountains herself, who dies in a pose remarkably similar to that of her centerfold spread, uttering the mysterious last words, “How do you like my car, big boy?”
In its opening minutes, the movie already throws in at least two nods to Lethal Weapon, the 1987 action movie that put writer-director Shane Black on the map, and there’s more to come. March is on the trail of a missing woman named Amelia (Margaret Qualley), and Healy cute-meets March when he’s hired to persuade the detective to drop the case. The two reluctantly join forces and find themselves caught in the middle of a porn ring (more shades of Lethal Weapon) that is somehow connected to an auto show.
Los Angeles is the perfect setting for a movie that operates on a fine line between fantasy and reality, from the centerfold who drives through a young boy’s home to the unicorn that appears at an industry party, to an atmosphere straight out of a ‘70s cop movie. Crowe and Gosling ably pull off Black’s trademark witty banter, which runs deep with a feeling of loss—of life and of innocence. Rice is strong as the precocious teen, and the supporting cast calls back to other films, Kim Basinger’s corrupt justice official is a nod to LA Confidential (which also starred Crowe), and Lois Smith’s dowager resonates with the renaissance of American indie film in the 70s. The movie is peppered with historical references to the ’70s oil crisis, and a period detail even more horrific: the rise of comedian Tim Allen, whose marquee status at the Comedy Store grows as the film progresses.
Nods to cinematic history are part of what makes this movie different from other buddy flicks. When a search for a missing woman turns into a search for a missing film, it turns into an archivist’s dream: an action comedy about film preservation. As a reel of 35mm film rolls precariously down asphalt, nobody asks, “Am I a good movie?” Not as good as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but the answer is yes, and I mean it.
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The Nice Guys
Written and directed by Shane Black
With Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice
Rated R for violence, sexuality, nudity, language and brief drug use
116 minutes
Opens today at a multiplex near you
