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THE NICE GUYS (Rated R)
Writer and director Shane Black has a good handle on how to deliver an action-comedy that pairs unlikely partners and pits them against powerful or dangerous adversaries for which they would, on paper, seem outmatched.
To understand the Shane Black cinematic touch, you only need to recall his great initial success nearly three decades ago in teaming Mel Gibson’s unhinged detective Martin Riggs with Danny Glover’s stable veteran LAPD cop Roger Murtaugh in “Lethal Weapon.”
Add to the “Lethal Weapon” legacy Black’s tongue-in-cheek sensibility to create complex characters in the action genre in such films as “The Last Boy Scout” and “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang,” and it naturally follows that “The Nice Guys” would be yet another Joel Silver production.
In fact, producer Joel Silver has observed that Shane Black has a “unique cinematic voice” whose films are “not traditional comedies, they are action pictures with humor, which is a different aesthetic.” This pretty much sums up the genre in which “The Nice Guys” lands with full force.
On a fundamental level, “The Nice Guys” is a detective story with hardboiled, tough guys. Well, actually, considering that a Shane Black buddy action-comedy involves mismatched partners, only one of them here is truly tough in a dangerous sort of way.
The hard-hitting fellow is Russell Crowe’s Jackson Healy, a hired enforcer whose typical work involves knocking people around on behalf of an aggrieved party. Oddly enough, he operates on a moral code that doesn’t go for the overkill.
It’s Los Angeles in 1977, and the famed Hollywood sign is crumbling, which serves as a metaphor for the societal decay on display. People are lining up for gas instead of movies. The glitter of Tinseltown is clouded by a thick blanket of smog. Porn actors and thugs roam freely.
Shrouded in the burnt orange haze are the seemingly separate but intertwined mysteries surrounding a missing girl, the death of a porn star in an elaborate car accident, and a high-level corporate conspiracy that unravels during a glitzy auto show.
A hapless private eye named Holland March (Ryan Gosling), a borderline alcoholic and widower, relies on the help of his precocious 13-year old daughter Holly (Angourie Rice) just to navigate the daily grind of life.
March’s detective business appears to thrive on jobs from elderly women not really in touch with reality. One such assignment involves searching for porn star Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio), who everyone knows died recently in a fiery car crash.
Connected tangentially to the porn star’s demise is the missing girl Amelia (Margaret Qualley), who seems to have a target on her back, except we’re not exactly sure why. Her case might be related to the violent death of the porn star, or at least Healy thinks so.
Healy and March first meet under circumstances much less than fortunate for the private eye, considering that hired muscle Healy breaks March’s arm as a warning to stay away from Amelia.
But later, Healy shows up in a bowling alley men’s room, where March is otherwise occupied and in a rather vulnerable position. Even more surprising, Healy says he now wants to hire March to help him track down Amelia.
This is ironic because it was Amelia who originally hired Healy to throw March off her trail. But things change when Healy learns, the hard way, that some rather nefarious people are looking for Amelia, who’s now in hiding.
Meanwhile, March and Healy are hired by Judith Kuttner (Kim Basinger), head of the California Department of Justice, to find her estranged daughter, the very same Amelia already being sought by the two hired gumshoes.
But March and Healy are not the only non-family members seeking Amelia. There are several dangerous people on the hunt for her, none more threatening than the professional assassin who goes by the name John Boy (Matt Bomer), a violent nutjob who loves firing machine guns.
Other hired guns searching for Amelia are referred o only as Older Guy (Keith David) and Blue Face (Beau Knapp), both of them apparently working for porn king Sid Shattuck, who’s only seen once his dead body is accidentally found by March during a disco party.
It doesn’t matter much that “The Nice Guys” has a plot where things don’t completely add up. The two partners stumble upon a scheme to suppress a porn film that exposes the conspiracy of the Big Three automakers to thwart the catalytic converter.
Mixing up the story with good humor and great banter, the oddball pairing of a pudgy, blunt and disheveled Russell Crowe paired with a nervous, inept and shaky Ryan Gosling are the main draw, but the young Angourie Rice is a real treasure as Gosling’s wise-beyond-her-years offspring.
“The Nice Guys,” which deserves its R rating for violence, nudity and language among other things, is casual, in an almost slapstick way, with its humorous cruise through the cesspool of corruption and boogie nights sleaze. It’s great fun on the seamy side of the era.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Many traffic collisions in California end in death or injury as a result of individuals speeding or driving aggressively.
The California Highway Patrol's Clear Lake Area will deploy additional officers on Highway 20 in an effort to reduce the number of motorcycle incidents or collisions resulting from unsafe speed, following too closely, unsafe lane changes, improper turning, and other primary collision factor violations by motorcyclists and other drivers.
The operation begins on Sunday, May 29.
To assist the CHP in this traffic safety effort, the Clear Lake Area has received a federally-funded grant titled, “Have a Good Ride II.”
The CHP Clear Lake Area will deploy future motorcycle safety enforcement operations through September 30, 2016.
Statistical data from the CHP’s Clear Lake Area database showed that in the Clear Lake CHP Area boundary, from January 2015 through December 2015, there were 37 injury traffic collisions, and one fatal traffic collision involving motorcycles.
Of the 37 injury collisions, 11 involved driving under the influence, the agency said.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Lower Lake Daze Parade and BBQ will held on Sunday, May 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The event begins with the parade – “The Best Little Parade Around” – at 11 a.m. on Main Street, featuring community organization and individual entrants.
Following the parade, the action shifts to the park, where the barbecue will take place, accompanied by live music and vendors.
Car clubs from around the lake will bring their cars and park them on Main Street.
The Lower Lake Community Action Group and the Lakeshore Lions host the event, which provides scholarships for graduating students from Lower Lake High School and benefits other community projects.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Some Lake County children who love to write stand a good chance of getting published this fall.
Again this summer the Lake County Library will sponsor the popular Young Writers Workshop.
Open to Lake County children and teens from fifth grade through high school, this summer’s program has an exciting twist.
A culmination of the program will be the publication of an anthology of writings by the kids who participate in the sessions – a book to be made available to the public later in the year.
Published author and columnist Robin C. Harris will conduct the free weekly sessions to be held on Saturday mornings beginning June 4 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Lakeport branch of the Lake County Library. The library is located at 1425 N. High St.
“In my work as a substitute teacher in eight schools this year, I saw many examples of a passion for writing on the part of students of all ages – an interest we hope to nurture, and a talent that needs an outlet such as we hope to provide. I want these kids to get their stuff in print,” said Harris.
Harris is a dynamic and inspiring teacher whose energies may exceed the noise level normally associated with libraries.
“That’s OK, though,” he said. “The stereotype of the old-fashioned librarian with her hair in a bun and her finger to her lips is no longer with us. We want this to be fun, and fun it will be. They’re not gonna throw us out.”
After all, Harris is the appointed member of the Lake County Library Advisory Board, representing District 5.
Much of the participants’ work will be in the area of fiction – specifically short stories, but non-fiction and poetry will be covered as well. Parents will be invited to sit in on the sessions as spectators in an effort to ensure continuity for their kids from one week to the next.
“This is not an English class,” Harris said. “Our work this summer will be to get stuff on paper in whatever from it turns out to be. Kids who have sat through language arts classes all year don’t need more of the same. The polishing can come later.”
All writings will be critiqued, and students will be helped over the rough spots in an effort to make their work ready for publication.
Lake County students entering grades five through 12 will be welcome in the program. The free eight-session workshop will begin June 4 and continue through Aug. 6, with a day off on July 2.
Preregistration is strongly encouraged, as this will be a popular activity, and will be limited to the first 20 applicants. Each applicant should bring a three-ring binder, some paper and a pen or pencil.
For information, students and parents may contact Amy Patton at the library 707-263-8817 or
The Lake County Library is on the Internet at http://library.lakecountyca.gov and Facebook at www.facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary .
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Lupoyoma Parlor No. 329 of the Native Daughters of the Golden West will meet on Thursday, June 9, for a membership social and organizational meeting.
The group meets at 5:30 p.m. for social time and 6 p.m. for the business meeting at Round Table Pizza, 821 11th St. in Lakeport.
If you were born in California and are over 16 you are a Native Californian eligible for membership in the Native Daughters of the Golden West organization.
The Native Daughters is a fraternal and patriotic organization founded in 1886 on the principles of:
– Love of home;
– Devotion to the flag;
– Veneration of the pioneers;
– Faith in the existence of God.
All Native Daughters are welcome to attend.
For more information contact Parlor Worthy President Carla Dore, 831-524-5588, or V.P. Dee Cuney, 707-235-2902, or visit the Native Daughters of the Golden West, Lupoyoma Parlor No. 329 Facebook page.
For information about Lake County Konocti No. 159 Chapter of the Native Sons of the Golden West contact Tony Braito at 707-245-7663.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – In anticipation of heavy Memorial Day weekend traffic volumes, Caltrans will be supplementing the temporary traffic signal just south of Standish-Hickey State Park on U.S. Highway 101 in Mendocino County with traffic control personnel.
The work taking place near Standish-Hickey State Park is being done to repair damage caused by slide activity in the area. Most of this damage is difficult or impossible to see from the roadway.
Caltrans and its partners at Danielson Construction are working to install a soldier-pile retaining wall with tiebacks and rebuild the roadway and shoulders at this location over the summer.
Caltrans normally suspends all roadwork during Memorial Day weekend to reduce impacts to those traveling the highways, but due to the nature of the work at this location, work will continue through the holiday weekend.
Flaggers will be present on the highway this weekend to reduce congestion and react to changing traffic patterns.
They ask that motorists anticipate short delays on U.S. Highway 101 just south of Standish-Hickey State Park in Mendocino County during the Memorial Day weekend, and to allow extra time to reach destinations safely.
Calrans thanks motorists for its patience and understanding, and they wish public a safe and meaningful Memorial Day weekend.