THE NICE GUYS

Shane Black’s THE NICE GUYS is set in 1970s Los Angeles, where a private investigator and a hired enforcer are drawn into a missing persons case that quickly expands into something far more tangled. The film uses this detective framework as a loose structure, allowing it to move between conspiracy, coincidence, and misdirection without ever fully settling into a conventional genre pattern.

What defines the film is Shane Black's trademark sense of humour. Built around timing, contrast, and the constant undercutting of expectations, the scenes he writes rarely play out in a straight line. Moments of violence are interrupted by awkwardness, misunderstandings escalate instead of resolving, and the central duo repeatedly fail their way forward. Much of the comedy comes from the dynamic between Ryan Gosling’s increasingly overwhelmed investigator and Russell Crowe’s more direct, pragmatic counterpart.

Black’s direction keeps the film in motion, using dialogue and physical comedy to maintain momentum while still allowing space for character. The result is a film that treats incompetence as a narrative engine, where progress is made through error rather than expertise. This approach gives THE NICE GUYS its distinct tone, combining genre elements with a form of humour that feels both carefully constructed and consistently unpredictable.

For those familiar with Shane Black’s earlier work, the appeal is immediate. If you respond to the rhythm, dialogue, and character pairings in THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT, KISS KISS BANG BANK or LETHAL WEAPONyou will recognise the same voice here. THE NICE GUYS distils that sensibility into one of his most complete and entertaining films.