Shane Black’s THE NICE GUYS features Ryan Gosling as a private detective who is suffering from sap induced anosmia, he’s crawled into a series of endless bottles trying to bury the loss he has in his life, much to the chagrin of his wondrous daughter. They’re the March family, Holland and Holly. Then there’s Russell Crowe’s Jackson Healy… a thug, an enforcer, the blunt force trauma for hire. Essentially, he’s who you hire when a scumbag is fucking your underage daughter. He’s good at breaking people precisely.
Now the posters and ads give you the idea they’re partners, but that’s something that comes to happen over the course of the story. At the start, they’re just each hired to do what it is they do. They’re both men of questionable morals and standards. But there in a town of questionable morals and a noted lack of standards. And that’s annoying them. A bit. Not too much.
The Private Eye and the Enforcer searching for an elusive girl we barely thought anything of when we first meet her in the film. Amelia. Not really a good girl. But really, maybe the best girl. She’s an angel that uses her body to try and… well, you should really see the movie. However, if I were a betting man, and I’m not really… I suspect that Shane Black is a huge fan of Edward Dmytryk’s MURDER MY SWEET which was adapted from Raymond Chandler’s brilliant Phillip Marlowe novel, FAREWELL, MY LOVELY… in that film, the Private Eye is played by Dick Powell brilliantly. Not necessarily the toughest, bravest or smartest guy around… always disheveled – but determined to take everyone’s money and take the licks it comes with. The ENFORCER in that film was the amazing Mike Mazurki as Moose Malloy. In that film, Moose is there to punish Powell, but also there to hire him to find this girl named THELMA.
I love Chandler’s arch-types, but the way Shane Black turns them on their ears… Making them work with each other within his own particular pulpy pastiche. Looking back at Dick Powell’s Marlowe in MURDER MY SWEET, he blundered into discovery after discovery with momentary bits of divine clarity in the midst of being knocked about, drugged & boozed. Gosling is genius here. I know – we all love Ryan Gosling, but just know that he’s never been this great.
There are things that Shane Black does in the creation of his cinematic icons that just tickles the living geek right out of me. Riggs had the Stooges – and it was an insane brilliant burst of Stoogian joy in those LETHAL WEAPON movies that made them so f’n endearing to me. But here… there’s a callback to ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN… I won’t say how or what, but the second the bit started I knew what was happening and it reduced me to a joyfully crying laughing maniac sitting next to Father Geek & Comic Book John who were both losing their stuffing too. It was the sheerest joy I’ve felt since Parker was referencing really old movies at the airport… but that was a callback that was underlined & footnoted in the dialogue. Here, what Shane and the Gos do is just sheer performance and it’s EUPHORIA BLISS!
In these kinds of tales whatever the initial gig is leads to conspiracies of the highest order. This is no different. This one does not disappoint.
I really hope you go and discover the special mania of this film. The energy is pure bliss – and the world of 70’s Los Angeles is beautifully brought to life – and I’m going to totally pretend that kid on the bicycle in the movie is a young Dirk Diggler – and that the one Bald Guy with his back to us is a tribute to the Colonel, aka the dearly departed Robert Ridgely! In fact, I want to watch that Porn Party over and over cuz there’s just too much going on there, just like a Little Annie Fanny party.
Shane Black has always had the best since of Child Endangerment in his films. I love that he brings the family to crime fiction & noir. That it isn’t just a Private Eye, but that there’s somebody looking up to him, caring for him and loving him… all while hating the disappointment she sometimes feels. It’s beautifully well done character work. And it’s something he’s always done. But damn nobody does it as great as him.
Now excuse me… I have to love the living shit out of Russell Crowe here. While I can’t shake the obvious surface level Mike Mazurki and Dick Powell character types from MURDER MY SWEET… A bit of the soul of their Holland & Jackson is in the performances of not just ABBOTT & COSTELLO but also LAUREL & HARDY. Russell will sometimes treat Ryan in that same condescending manner, but Holland’s alcoholism has reduced him to the man-baby that both Lou & Stan had. I think I even saw an eye roll or two. “You didn’t fall down that hill did you?” really strikes to that – and then there’s that proclamation, “I think I’m Invincible” – and he is – he’s protected from up on high by the power of Shane Black. This is complete beautiful slapstick. If you know your Bud & Lou as you should, you know they played Private Detectives before, but never within a truly hardnosed detective tale. Though check out WHO DONE IT? and ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN. Although, look up the silent Laurel & Hardy short film DO DETECTIVES THINK? The very image that Crowe and Gosling physically strike is that of Hardy & Laurel. Though Crowe totally did a Ben Turpin spit take that killed me. But Crowe is definitely more Ollie only imagine if Oliver Hardy would go all Bud White from time to time.
Speaking of Bud White, how lovely was it to have Lynn Bracken show up in this flick? I love Kim Basinger, but just seeing her and Crowe on screen… it made my heart go all pitter patter. Kim is great in her small role here!
However, the alcohol and trauma induced hallucinations… that’s pure Dmytryk with a Shane Black flourish even as he’s doing a Hal Roach sight gag & impeccable comedic timing riffs and slapsticks with Peckinpah punctuations! I couldn’t love this film more. Just watching the expressions of Crowe & Gosling and seeing such a loving acting tribute to the great Golden Age of Buddy Comedy stars… just with tits and blood and rock and roll! I love it. A true film geek delight!
