Film/TV

Curtains Up on The Nice Guys

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Finally — a movie for adults.

The Nice Guys is what the doctor ordered to suppress the superhero fever that is causing me to not want to sit in a theatre anymore. It’s a cheery, violent and vulgar film. This is a film made for adults. Not some cheery teen-young adult hybrid of a film. Adult entertainment. Leave the kids at home and enjoy.  Playing mismatched partners of sorts, Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are a perfect pair, recalling Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, which is no coincidence since the director and writer of The Nice Guys was the writer of Lethal Weapon —  Shane Black.

It’s 1970’s LA and a low rent private eye Holland March (Gosling) teams up with a thumb breaker named Jackson Healy (Crowe) to solve the case of a missing girl and the apparent suicide of a porn star named Misty Mountains. This leads them into a conspiracy that reaches into the higher levels of the US government and LA’s organized crime world.

What this film does so well is capture the sleazy essence of the era. From the costumes to the cars, to the hazy smog filled lensing from french DOP Phillipe Rousselot, the atmosphere sizzles. And all connected with the amazing music of the period. It all seems really thought through. If it were set in modern day Los Angeles, the film would not work as well as it does here. Billed as a comedy, the film works just as well as a film noir in the vein of Chinatown, with colourful characters popping in and out of the narrative as if the film was some sort of 70’s funhouse. Special note should be given to Angourie Rice, the young actress who plays Holly, March’s daughter. She holds her own as the third lead of this film and has a natural screen presence that will hopefully carry her career into the future.

Between this and Money Monster, I just might start enjoying the summer movie season all over again.

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