” THE NICE GUYS ” : Shane Black Like A Diamond

Let it be said : The Nice Guys is, to speak vulgarly, “a” Kiss Kiss Bang Bang bis.

In fact, if we except its retro atmosphere is relatively new, and the fact that it is R-Rated (with boobs, blood, gore and fucks, sometimes all 3 at the same time), THE NICE GUYS is even a pure film of Shane Black : a great buddy movie doubled from one survey to the drawers do ever seriously, a film with humor pest based on the aura and/or the cross-use of its actors. A genre film uninhibited, successful precisely because it bears the mark of its author. Nothing more.

But all of a sudden, it is also its counterpart : the surprise is no longer necessarily there. We begin to understand the ins and outs of the unpredictability made in Black, there’s this feeling that you know in advance that we will lose the thread or what – of force and no subtlety – we will bring back to the heart of the story. One has the impression to have seen this duo evil with a thousand times dialogue to kick of punchlines that smack… This can certainly rejoice, but also tired. There is a routine. But it is not, however, exactly for this that we are going to see a film of Shane Black ?

This feeling of a film gone, a movie that could still allow the outputs of roads irreverent, while seeking the pleasure primary of his audience. This is what made us love Iron Man 3 because, despite its onslaught of action scenes, the generic, Shane Black is playing with the initial material, the comics (!!!). This is also the first degree in the second degree which allowed us to appreciate at least one of the achievements of the nazissime Renny Harlin (goodbye forever). And it is this science of the association explosive opposites in order to highlight conflicts, situations, dangers, humor, emotions and social conditions, which made each lethal Weapon, a film that is important in its own way.

If our establishment’s favourite Black will remain the Last Action Hero performed by John McTiernan, this is just as much for his staging, his direction of actors, art direction… as well As for his awesome script ultra-meta, and his dialogue is funny and moving. Shane Black, his talent as a storyteller without pretense other than our entertainment, is dispersed and recognizable through each film.

Apart from the cultural shock wasps / afro-americans, obviously too much current (and already widely operated by Shane Black in goodbye has never, The Last Samaritan , or the lethal Weapon), THE NICE GUYS is a good summary of many of the topics of the author. The duo of detective, or at least of two men brought together by chance on a complex investigation, is a constant for him. Then Black has this special talent to combine the opposites. The fat and the skinny, the old and the young, the gruff and effeminate, the lonely and the father, the child and the adult, both sincere and manipulative, the girls who look the same, the guns and jacuzzi, justice, and porn… Among other things. The child-consciousness is returning, the woman-object also. In Black, a porn movie CAN be a reason for investigation (see the fantastic intro). In Black, the jokes often funny, but sometimes at the limit of bad taste (“hey dad, want a blowjob ?”). In Black, it has the delicacy to cover the bloody corpse of a playmate naked. In Black, the dead are all ways, either stupid, or unexpected – never sweet, always “enjoyable”.

“THE NICE GUYS is a pure film of Shane Black, but not really any more.”

In Black, and therefore in THE NICE GUYS, there’s also this passion to the unique characters. Amelia, the teen rebel who makes porn to protest, hippies protesting against the quality of the air, passing by a kid obsessed with his cock, a giant bee, the three hired guns, each with their degree of psychosis, all have this crazy neurotic opposing or reinforcing a first impression to be a caricature. Then the trio of actors makes sparks, by alchemy rather than by originality of game for that matter. Ryan Gosling starts in the mode uninhibited with her little cries effeminate, Russell Crowe… well, it’s Russell Crowe, and the young Angourie Rice “new Elle Fanning, is excellent in the role of a kid more mature and moral than the great – as always with the kids in the films of Shane Black.

THE NICE GUYS, so this is a challenging urban adventure in rhythm, intermittent, or stories of each, form a stimulating. An epic in a Los Angeles-dirty, polluted and foil, straight out of the 70’s. It is fun, it is great, it lacks a bit of originality if you are customary scenarios of the producer, but it’s worth it anyway damn it !

Georgeslechameau

Your opinion ?