The Nice Guys Out of The Smog at Festival de Cannes

Russell Crowe & Ryan Gosling © Daniel McFadden

The Nice Guys by Shane Black creates a new duo of detectives friends in a hilarious comedy, driven at breakneck speed, but with feelings.

The Nice Guys is the third feature film of the American writer-director Shane Black, after his debut as a director with the black comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005 and Iron Man 3 for Marvel in 2013. With this film, presented Out of Competition in Cannes, Black returns to the action comedy with the association of two very different detective pals, a recipe that made his success as screenwriter for Lethal Weapon and its three sequels, the Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero, The Long Kiss Goodnight…

Two men bruised by life

In the late 70s, in Los Angeles, capital of American cinema, Holland March (Ryan Gosling), a private investigator who is drifting off, having trouble making ends meet, especially as he is stuck with his teenage rebel daughter, Holly (Angourie Rice). Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) is a brutish lout, a tough guy to rent for breaking jaws. A malicious fate drives the two “good guys” to constitute a rickety but pugnacious duo to investigate the death of a porn star. The two men bruised by life will struggle against a pernicious and corrupt system, led into a wacky investigation by Holly, who will take the lead, the two comics being a bit lost in the smog.

A retro, out of time thriller

The Nice Guys is a retro thriller, timeless and modern, with an incongruous duo which works on the screen, two actors taken in an unusual role and pushed to situation comedy by Shane Black. The plot is complex, patiently developed, carried in a precise way, mixing porn and conspiracy theory in a slapstick comedy. Action scenes, spectacular stunts, shootings, all seasoned with sometimes absurd but pleasurable dialogues segue one another at the speed of lightning. The film features also Kim Basinger, the mother of Amelia (Marguaret Qualley), the missing girl.

Shane Black was already in Cannes for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005, selected in the Official Selection, also Out of Competition… When will he enter the competition?