Shane Black returns to grace us with another big screen adventure involving film noir reinvention, mismatched partners and the Christmas season. Read our review and find out if The Nice Guys is worth your time

Shane Black is one of the most distinctive screenwriters of action-comedy film of the last 30 years. He wrote the first 2 Lethal Weapon movies, 80’s cult favorite The Monster Squad, and the film that revived Robert Downey Jr.’s acting career, 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Black’s last film, 2013’s Iron Man 3, which he wrote and directed, is one of the highest grossing films of all-time. His latest work, The Nice guys, is a much smaller period film sent in the late 1970’s, which hearkens back to his earlier work like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Lethal Weapon, with a noir-ish look into the lives of lovable antiheroes on the fringe investigating a case in which they’re over their heads.

Russell Crowe plays Jackson Healy, a private eye/tough guys for hire. He’s a lovable gruff who takes a payment from a girl named Amelia (Sarah Margaret Qualley from HBO’s The Leftovers) to scare off another private eye named Holland March (Ryan Gosling) from following her. Gosling plays March as a charming drunk rogue who scams his clients who have easy cases out of their money by drawing out the resolution. His latest case involved trying to find out if a famed adult actress named Misty Mountains survived a fatal car accident and tried to visit her aunt after her supposed death. March believes Misty did not survive, but in his search, finds himself the target of not only a beating by March, but also by a pair of goons (Keith David and Beau Knapp) who are also trying to find Amelia for their own nefarious purposes. Healy decides that teaming up with March to find Amelia is the best way to keep her safe and find out what sort of situation she is mixed up in that could have her in danger.

In many ways, The Nice Guys is the love child of Black’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and the classic Coen Brothers’ film noir private investigation dramedy The Big Lebowski. Gosling gets to explore his physical comedy chops to their fullest, playing a similar role as Mel Gibson’s Riggs or Downey’s Harry Lockhart to Crowe’s gruff older partner. The Nice Guys‘ use of creative dream sequences within the narrative and quirky and fascinating side-characters hearkens back memories of Jeff Bridges’ immortal dude, as does a setpiece involving a porn industry party turned investigation scene. Black knows how to write dialogue that sings and sticks in your brain and his script for The Nice Guys is no exception. Setting the film as a period piece in Los Angeles at the dawn of the 1980’s also lets him play with interesting social issues happening at the time, such as the focus on air pollution and the environment, to comical effect while still retaining a timeless quality to the humor.

The film also benefits from from very strong performances throughout. Especially actress Angourie Rice playing Holly, March’s daughter. She is a street smart, knowing and precocious character and plays the role with panache. Crowe’s character Healy has a lot of nuance in his backstory and Crowe really shines in playing a straight man to Gosling’s off-kilter March character. Matt Bower also shines as the villainous John Boy, reveling in a very meaty villain role and creating a very memorable character.

The Nice Guys is easily one of the best films that 2016 has served up yet and another excellent outing from Shane Black. It is a signature Shane Black film, with all of his favorite tropes from his past films represented, including a Christmas season shout out. The period elements give it a strong personality throughout, especially plot elements dealing with film projection, the nascent 70’s porn industry and the buddy cop films that Black made his name writing. Definitely, a can’t miss film this summer season.