The Nice Guys
Luke

Review by Luke Patron

The Nice Guys 2016

★★★★★

Rewatched 07 Sep 2023

Enforcer Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) and private investigator Holland March (Ryan Gosling) realise they are working different angles of the same case and reluctantly join forces when it becomes clear that there is something larger at play.

Everyone says it but they only say it because it's true: it really is a damn crime that there are not another two or three of these by now. Crowe and Gosling are both brilliant here, although Gosling steals the show entirely as the drunk and cowardly March. Anyone who had seen this movie before Barbie (2023) knew one hundred and ten percent that Ryan Gosling had been perfectly cast as Ken.

The script from director Shane Black and co-writer Anthony Bagarozzi is so smart and hysterically funny. The writing and performances never fail to make me laugh, everything about this movie is near-perfect. The physical comedy, the stunts, the action, the writing, it's all executed remarkably well and never gets old.

One of my favourite sequences comes in the back half of the film when the two leads peer out of a penthouse elevator, March's reaction to what they see has me in stitches every damn time. It is written, performed, edited and paced in such a way that it is impossible for me to see it and not crack up.

The Nice Guys is a film that I have grown more and more fond of each time I see it, I always forget how much I love it and then when I watch it I have the best time with it. I recommend it to people every chance I get and yet I think this is only my fourth or fifth time watching it! It is certainly one of my favourite comedies and I cannot imagine myself ever enjoying the film any less during future rewatches.

Superb direction from Shane Black has the sharp script from Black and Bagarozzi executed flawlessly; thanks to astonishing writing, direction and performances from its leads and supporting cast, The Nice Guys is a true classic.

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