Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe are some of the biggest stars of the 21st century. They are both multiple Academy Award nominees, with Crowe even winning in 2001 for his role in Gladiator. They’ve produced numerous all-time classics, and they each have their own dedicated fan bases that will see pretty much anything they are in. So why is it that one of their best films of the last decade, The Nice Guys, remains as underrated as it is?
The Nice Guys was released back in the summer of 2016, and while it may have been the recipient of a lot of critical acclaim at the time, it failed to really connect with audiences. Directed by Shane Black, the film is a throwback to the buddy cop comedies of old. While the main characters of the film aren’t cops, The Nice Guys does a lot to emulate the successful formula of that now mostly extinct genre. Gosling plays a private investigator named Holland March, who, despite being an absolute train wreck of a human being, actually manages to be pretty good at his job on occasion. Crowe, on the other hand, plays Jackson Healy, whose services are similar to March’s in the sense that he’s an individual for hire. However, instead of investigating, Healy will just threaten and assault pretty much whoever he is hired to target.
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The pairing of Gosling and Crowe on The Nice Guys, in addition to a tight and witty script from Black and Anthony Bagarozzi, made the film not just a highlight from 2016 but one of the best to come from the 2010s in general. The film has gained a bit of a cult following, made up of the few who saw it when it was released, and those who have discovered it on Netflix in the years since. However, The Nice Guys has yet to really catch the attention of general audiences. Although the chances of a sequel are all but gone at this point, The Nice Guys is still out there waiting to be found.
A Great ‘70s-Based Comedy
Warner Bros. Pictures
A lot of the humor from The Nice Guys is a direct result of the various absurd situations March and Healy find themselves in throughout the film. The story takes place in Los Angeles in 1977, and as such the characters are completely and constantly surrounded by disco, the porn industry, an endless supply of drugs, and just about any sort of absurdity you can imagine. The two characters first cross paths as Healy is hired to intimidate March and convince him to give up an investigation into the murder of a porn star named Misty Mountains. This initial interaction between the two men makes for an immensely entertaining introduction to them as a duo, as March is trying (and failing) to outwit Healy, who is just coming at him with the brutal strength of a bulldozer. Gosling and Crowe play off each other incredibly well, and their chemistry together is immediately one of the best parts of the film.
As the film continues, March and Healy begin to work together to solve the mystery, and they find themselves attending Hollywood parties, fighting off goons played Keith David and Beau Knapp (listed in the credits simply as “Blueface” and “Older Guy”) and getting themselves into all sorts of ridiculous situations. A lot of the humor of The Nice Guys comes from how they attempt to get themselves out of these situations. Whether it be accidentally falling off a roof on more than one occasion or simply getting back in an elevator after witnessing a murder, the two characters often find themselves in way too over their heads. Yet, they always find (or stumble upon) the exact answer they need, whether they are looking for it or not. They are competent characters, but they aren’t always the best people for the job, which allows for plenty of situations in which they are just improvising their way out of the most preposterous of predicaments.
Considering the film is set in the ’70s, music also plays a significant role in establishing the tone of The Nice Guys. This is done through both a soundtrack of ’70s hits and an original score by John Ottman and David Buckley. The film’s score is thoroughly influenced by the various buddy cop and crime dramas that inspired the film itself. There’s lots of smooth saxophone-led jazz and soul, as well as the twang of an electric guitar that embraces an extremely groovy aesthetic. As for the soundtrack, hits like “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” by the Temptations, “Get Down On It” by Kool & The Gang, “Jive Talkin” by the Bee Gees and two separate Earth, Wind & Fire tracks (“September” and “Boogie Wonderland”) can be found sprinkled heavily throughout the film.
Gosling, Crowe and the Rest of the Cast
Although Black and Bagarozzi did an excellent job of drafting a compelling story with plenty of humor and entertaining characters, it is the cast of The Nice Guys that really brings the film to life. Gosling and Crowe are both perfectly cast in their roles, and their on-screen chemistry is some of the best in recent memory. They both wholly embody the roles they are playing, and they are completely committed to the absurdity of the story and the throwback aesthetic of the entire film. Crowe embraces the truck-like physicality of Healy while also balancing the character out with a sense of intellect that makes him so much more than just the muscle of the duo. Gosling, on the other hand, brilliantly portrays the pitiful nature of March, who, as smart as he may be, is a mess of a man who just can’t catch a break.
If these two characters hadn’t been cast so perfectly, or if they didn’t mesh well together on screen, much of The Nice Guys could’ve fallen flat. Thankfully, Crowe and Gosling make for a wonderful pairing, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing these roles. They balance each other out incredibly well, and neither one of them overshadows the other. They thoroughly share the spotlight of the film and provide plenty of space for the rest of the ensemble to shine as well. They each get their own memorable moments of humor as well as more emotional beats that allow them to really tap into their world-class acting talents. Most of all, though, it’s just apparent that they were having a lot of fun shooting the film. They are constantly carrying an energy of playfulness and delight that only comes when someone genuinely loves what they are doing. That feeling seeps into the film and helps to establish its tone and make it an even more enjoyable experience for the viewing audience.
The cast of The Nice Guys goes far beyond just Crowe and Gosling though. There are the aforementioned Keith David and Beau Knapp who, while they don’t have a ton of screen time, are able to make really solid impressions with the scenes that they do have. Beyond them, Angourie Rice (who recently played Betty Brandt in the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man films) is also a major standout. She plays March’s daughter Holly, and she is almost an equal part of the crew with March and Healy. The film was her Hollywood debut, and in this first big film outing, she did the near impossible by holding her own against the heavyweights that are Gosling and Crowe, and she did it at only 15 years old nonetheless. The film also features the likes of Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Yaya DaCosta, Ty Simpkins, and Kim Basinger, who are all excellent additions to the cast that do a solid job of rounding out the film as a whole.
A Winding Murder Mystery
Underneath all the humor of The Nice Guys is also a compelling murder mystery that serves as the driving force of the entire plot. Although the film starts out with March simply investigating the death of Misty Mountains before having his run-in with Healy, it gradually grows into a much larger and increasingly unexpected conspiracy. Before they know what is happening, the duo is wrapped up in a wide-reaching scandal that runs through the worlds of the porn industry, the auto-industrial complex, organized crime, and even the federal government. They weave their way through this complicated conspiracy by figuring half of it out intuitively and then stumbling into the rest of it with pure luck. There are all sorts of different twists that shock them just as much as the audience, and yet it all grows naturally out of what seemed to be a fairly cut-and-dry case to begin with.
With as complicated as the mystery in The Nice Guys is, it can be really easy to get lost in it. There are a lot of moving parts, but that layer of complexity is very purposeful. Even the characters within the story don’t know what is going on most of the time, and Black is able to put the audience in that same mindset by jerking the mystery in so many different directions. It’s hard not to get disoriented by the juggling of all the different players in the game, but yet it all manages to fit together remarkably well. The complexity of the film’s plot does not take away from the experience whatsoever. In fact, upon further re-watches, everything really begins to click together. There’s logic and thought behind every twist the film has to offer, even if it isn’t apparent upon first viewing. By the time the film reaches its conclusion, the audience is left thoroughly satisfied by both the resolution to the mystery and the journey they have gone on with the characters of the film.
The Nice Guys is a rollercoaster of a movie. It jumps from scene to scene, often not explaining how exactly it got to wherever the story is, but it’s so relentlessly entertaining that the audience doesn’t really care. It’s the kind of movie that only gets better and better with every passing year, and the situational humor has helped cement the film as one of the funniest of the last decade. In addition to that, time has shown that Crowe’s and Gosling’s performances in The Nice Guys might just be some of the best of their careers. It’s a shame that no sequel was made, but the film is just so exceedingly entertaining that it also feels like it doesn’t necessarily need a sequel. It stands well on its own and is only going to become more and more well-regarded and remembered as time goes on.
