In contemporary cinema, it’s very rare for a film to become a cult classic. After all, even the biggest, most egregious box office bomb can find a second life on streaming and grow its audience there. Shane Black’s The Nice Guys isn’t quite like that.
While it made more than its modest $50 million budget, it’s only through word-of-mouth that the film has built a reputation. In fact, not since Donnie Darko has there been a more significant cult hit as The Nice Guys. With a new release from Second Sight Films on the horizon, does it hold up nine years on?
The film stars Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling as Jackson Healy and Holland March, two morally loose private detectives in seedy 1970s LA. The mysterious death of a porn star piques both of their professional interests – and as they investigate, they unveil a deeper conspiracy running throughout the city.
Without the chemistry between its leads, The Nice Guys would be a whole lot less charming. Gosling in particular is electric: so quippy and electric, with his dynamism bouncing nicely off Crowe’s sternness. The film released just as Gosling moved from gritty action anti-hero to a bona fide movie star, and his performance as Holland is certainly the blueprint for his turn as Ken. Alongside Crowe, it’s the classic good-cop-bad-cop setup, but the interactions between the two – from sharp, terse quibbles to full-fledged fist fights – help make it distinctive.
The production design is equally important to the film’s lasting impression. 1970s LA looks exactly as pulpy as you’d expect, from shady dive bars to an impressively accurate recreation of Earth, Wind & Fire. It’s clearly Black’s love-letter to this era of American culture, warts and all. That said, while it initially appears to be going down a male gaze avenue in its depiction of women, an early-career Margaret Qualley’s characterisation of Amelia cleverly subverts it.
It’s also not quite as straight-laced with its presentation as comparable films like Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. There are occasional sparks of Black’s directorial flair, with hallucinatory dream sequences, zippy action, and a tone that never takes itself too seriously. More than anything, it made me think that Black is more cut out for this kind of filmmaking than the big-budget duds sandwiched between it, Iron Man 3 and The Predator.
He’s a director who works better when narrative is secondary to atmosphere, and it really shows in the thinness of The Nice Guys‘ narrative. Most detective movies go down the same plot beats, but The Nice Guys doesn’t have anything particularly attention-grabbing in its story. Two down-on-their-luck deadbeats? Check. Corrupt government officials? Check. While it’s admittedly less attuned to overly oblique plotting like Confess, Fletch as an example, and you don’t need to do much to follow the story, it’s still pretty rote.
But even if you find yourself frustrated by this narrative thinness during its runtime, The Nice Guys somehow manages to win you over by the end. It’s in no small part thanks to its leads, who find a way to do a lot with a little in terms of material. Compounded by zippy action and a tone that welcomes you in rather than making you pay attention to every clue, and it results in an easy watch.
Is it deserving of its cult status? Perhaps not. But The Nice Guys is an undeniably fun ride, that does just enough to sink its claws in and make it a movie-night favourite.
★★★½
The Nice Guys 4K and Blu-ray from Second Sight Films releases on June 16, 2025.
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