I couldn’t fit what I really wanted to say about The Nice Guys into just a few short sentences, so instead I’ve chosen to write my first-ever TRADITIONAL REVIEW for Red Comet Reviews.

Full text after the break.

The Nice Guys is one of the best films I’ve seen this year – an energetic comedy skillfully directed by Shane Black, who gets strong performances from Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling to go along with an A+ script.

The film is captivating from its opening scene, in which audiences witness the shadowy murder of porn star Misty Mountains, whose Trans-Am is forced off the road and plows through a house before hurtling off a cliff. Misty’s dying pose, mimicking a Playboy centerfold spotlighted by the camera moments earlier, foreshadows the intrigue, sleaze, and no-holds-barred humor to come.

Shortly afterwards, we’re introduced to Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe), a hired enforcer who’s starting to lose his taste for the job, and Holland March (Ryan Gosling), an underachieving P.I. who makes a living mostly by hustling senior citizens. The two men cross paths when they are both hired separately to search for a girl named Amelia, who has an unclear connection to the Misty Mountains case. Despite their mutual disgust towards each other – Healy takes issue with March’s lack of professionalism, while March takes issue with Healy breaking his arm in a previous encounter – they decide to work together out of convenience, and later for the sake of their own survival, as the job proves to be more dangerous and scandalous than either of them expected.

It’s difficult for me to say much more about the plot without spoiling anything, but from there, the clues come together in ways that are surprising but not contrived, and lead to a satisfyingly high-stakes climax. Various scenes take our heroes through neighborhood porn rings, drug-fueled raves, seedy motels, and the 1978 Los Angeles Auto Show.

This is far from a hard-boiled detective story, though. Healy and March’s odd-couple relationship and shared world-weary attitudes are the source of a near-constant stream of wry observations and witty one-liners that sneak casually into the dialogue and are devastatingly funny. The confidence and ease with which the jokes are delivered speaks to the writers and actors alike having full faith in the quality of their material.

Yet, as funny as this story is, it’s the performances from Crowe and Gosling that really make it work. Crowe’s understated performance blends tough-guy bluster with a very real sense of loneliness and longing, while Gosling’s pratfalls and breathless excuses suggest a man who has lost control of his own life. (I’m especially impressed by Gosling’s willingness to embarrass himself for the sake of the role.) Underneath the popcorn-worthy shenanigans, it’s both actors’ ability to capture and communicate a sense of disenchantment and desire for Something Better that shapes the cores themes and develops this movie into something smarter than just another buddy-cop feature. It’s similar to what Black managed to accomplish in Iron Man 3, only in stereo this time.

But while that movie ultimately looks to the future with comic-book optimism, The Nice Guys looks to the past and ends on more of a down note; the whole film is dotted with reminders of what our heroes couldn’t accomplish, and all the progress America hasn’t made in the nearly 40 years between 1978 and now. Some will see that as nihilistic and be turned off, and that’s valid. As for me, watching Healy and March share a drink, I took a different message from it – that it might not be possible to solve the big problems, but if you can get your own shit together enough, those problems don’t matter as much.

RATING: 4.5/5