Asked what kind of superhero he would like to be, Crowe joked that he would be “Fatman” and Gosling would be “Ribbon”. Something about a dead porn star aptly named Misty Mountains, her friend Amelia (Margaret Qualley), also involved in porn, and a psycho killer named John Boy (a gonzo Matt Bomer) who wants to off Amelia in the name of a greater conspiracy involving environmental crimes. The screenwriter of “Lethal Weapon” and director of “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” teams up with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling for his latest wild romp, “The Nice Guys”, and it’s a goofball riff on 1970s Los Angeles culture, the porn industry – and the rise of catalytic converters. “Naturally, it’s also sprinkled with plenty of sex, booze, some drugs and requisite rock ‘n” roll, so keep the kiddies far away, even if young Aussie Rice somehow seems to be enjoying herself.
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There aren’t many shocking twists in comedies about good guys versus bad guys (or honestly, kinda goodish guys versus murdering heels), but as the film speeds toward its happy ending, Black yanks the wheel just enough to remind us that he’s the mastermind in charge.
The teenager said: ” He’s just a lovely guy, so nice to hang out with. Ryan Gosling stars as Holland March, private eye, hard drinker and single dad to the hilariously precocious Holly, played by 14-year-old Angourie Rice.
The setting of 1970s Los Angeles serves the film’s noir elements well, with a suggestion that paradise is a bit faded as smog hovers over the town and residents are forced to stay indoors. Black plays with the audience, showing us things the characters miss – say, poor doomed Misty’s vehicle hurtling over a cliff, which we spot through a kitchen window 20 agonizing seconds before it smashes through the house. His protagonists are Holland March (Ryan Gosling), a fumble-fuck private investigator, and Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe), a freelance ballbreaker. The fun here is in the actors.
Black and his co-writer, Anthony Bagarozzi, say they didn’t realize how amusing Gosling could be until he got to the set. “My parents were too cheap to buy a Blockbuster membership”, he quips, “so they just took us to the library where the movies were free and all the library had were bible movies and Abbott and Costello movies, so I watched all of those”. Now they’re kickin” it old skool “70s sexy in “The Nice Guys” – a movie that makes even less sense than bell bottoms.
This literal break-neck opening sets in motion a tale as shaggy as ’70s carpet, though not as soft. The other is Ryan Gosling, upending his steely on-screen persona (“Drive”, “Gangster Squad”) as bumbling detective Holland March.
“I left New Zealand in 1968 and came back in 1978 and we – Auckland Boys Grammar – were playing cricket”. It’s not the real band, but actors made to look like them at the time. Although her character is the real adult among the three, both Crowe and Gosling were anxious about filming some of the content and language.
So on the first day of the shoot, Gosling snuck on set early to try upping the ante on a scene in which his character, trapped in the bathroom, attempts to threaten Healy.
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“Sometimes I would suspect that he was up all night trying to think of ways to make me laugh because he just has this natural comedic gift”, he explained, adding later: “I laughed my head off all the time”.
