In the opening of The Nice Guys, the latest in a recent resurgence of throwbacks to the buddy films of yore, the camera peers out from behind a vandalised and partly damaged Hollywood sign to reveal the glitzy L.A. skyline below.
THE NICE GUYS
Director: Shane Black
Cast: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Yaya DaCosta, Keith David, Beau Knapp, Kim Basinger
Rating: (R16)
Three and a half stars (out of five)
The implication is not subtle - that movies are in dire need of repair - and it's a hint there's a little more going on beneath the surface than simply the pastiche and postmodern irony you might expect.
It's also no accident that 1977 is when the story takes place.
Giant billboards for early blockbuster follow-ups such as Jaws 2 and Airport '77 adorn the boulevards.
A Sex Pistols poster plastered on a bedroom wall offsets the gaudy disco being piped out at decadent celebrity parties.
This was a year in which pop culture took a sharp detour, from which it is still reeling.
Quite the backdrop then for a plot involving the hunt for a missing reel of "experimental'' film in which a murdered porn star, in cahoots with a group of environmental activists, has exposed a conspiracy by car manufacturers to suppress a device that would regulate exhaust emissions and reverse the growing smog problem.
Writer/director Shane Black is best known for scripting the first two Lethal Weapon movies, and he knows this genre like the back of his elbow.
Crowe and Gosling are in top comedic form as the mismatched detectives, and it's all largely enjoyable without being self-consciously retro.
I can't wait for the sequel.
- Jeremy Quinn
