plug: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) + The Nice Guys (2016)
"Merry Christmas, sorry I fucked you over."
Welcome to today’s plug, a quick recommendation of an oft-forgotten film, cult classic, or movie that is dying to be rewatched // We send plugs every Tuesday + Thursday //
I tend to enjoy the holidays and all their accoutrements and this year I’ve still tried to as much as I can, but under the circumstances, it’s been kinda tough. Was listening to “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses and really felt the vibe of its opening lines:
"Bah, humbug" no, that's too strong
Cause it is my favorite holiday
But all this year's been a busy blur
Don't think I have the energy
To add to my already mad rush
Just cause it's 'tis the season
The perfect gift for me would be
Completions and connections left from last year
Anyway, in the spirit of leftover holiday completions and connections, I thought I’d recommend a double-feature of beloved (by me at least) hard-boiled buddy-action movies directed by Shane Black, both of which take place in Los Angeles at Christmastime. They’re both funny and irreverent and delightful and, sadly, probably better-suited to carry us all through the final stretch of the 2020 malaise than a fuckin’ $600 stimulus check.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) stars Robert Downey Jr. (in his underappreciated post-rehab/pre-Iron Man sweet spot) as a small-time crook who escapes a burglury-gone-wrong by stumbling into an audition for a detective role in a movie. Val Kilmer plays a P.I. assigned to help Downey with on-the-job detective lessons to prepare for his screen test, which leads the misbegotten pair into a convoluted murder conspiracy involving an old high school flame of Downey’s (Michelle Monaghan, always a treasure). It’s a shining example of the type of mid-budget adult action comedies that can’t get made anymore and a pitch-perfect modern remix of hard-boiled detective stories. Loved what Downey and Black did with Iron Man 3, but there’s definitely a fresher magic to what they do as an actor-director pair in this one.
The Nice Guys (2016) is very much the same thing (in a good way) with an uncannily similar Hollywood murder plot, only it takes place in the ‘70s and takes full aesthetic advantage of the period and setting à la Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe jump off the screen with major chem as a charming but incompetent private detective and an aging hired goon with a heart of gold, respectively. Writing for Birth.Movies.Death., Priscilla Page described Gosling and Crowe as a pair of ‘70s “knight errants” in the movie, “their damsel in distress a porn star, a smog-choked Los Angeles their Camelot. And Holland March [Gosling], although more vulnerable and flawed than the characters who preceded him, might come pretty damn close to the Platonic ideal of Shane Black characters.” Both Gosling and Crowe are in top comedic form, and complement each other’s vibes in a way you never would have expected. It’s been a while since I last watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but I’ve watched The Nice Guys several times since it came out and could watch it like every day and not get sick of it. It’s witty and sweet and propulsive in all the right places, a fuckin’ solid comfort movie for any time of year, really.
Black has been using Christmas as a backdrop for his buddy-crime comedies since Lethal Weapon, but I always kind of forget about that until I rewatch them. I think it has something to do with the specific and ethereal way Black infuses his tongue-in-cheek LA crime stories with the artifacts and magical objects of the holiday. Here’s something he said about it in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:
Christmas represents a little stutter in the march of days, a hush in which we have a chance to assess and retrospect our lives. I tend to think also that it just informs as a backdrop. The first time I noticed it was Three Days of the Condor, the Sydney Pollack film, where Christmas in the background adds this really odd, chilling counterpoint to the espionage plot. I also think that Christmas is just a thing of beauty, especially as it applies to places like Los Angeles, where it’s not so obvious, and you have to dig for it, like little nuggets. One night, on Christmas Eve, I walked past a Mexican lunch wagon serving tacos, and I saw this little string, and on it was a little broken plastic figurine, with a light bulb inside it, of the Virgin Mary. And I thought, that’s just a little hidden piece of magic. You know, all around the city are little slices, little icons of Christmas, that are as effective and beautiful in and of themselves as any 40-foot Christmas tree on the lawn of the White House.
You can watch The Nice Guys on Hulu and rent Kiss Kiss Bang Bang on Amazon Prime.
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