Splatter: on FILM

Am I a good person?

The two main talents pose this question as they seek redemption and purpose in 1970’s Hollywood.

Russell Crowe, bedraggled muscle-for-hire becomes a crime fighter just long enough to get a taste for life as a good guy. He feels proud of himself and wants to do what is right, but it’s hard to shake old habits.Ryan Gosling’s character, b-class private investigator with decent intuition but bad judgement ceases to impress his toughest critic: his preteen daughter.The precocious daughter, played by Angourie Rice, finds herself helping on a missing persons case that both men go after. They are too often the Oscar and Felix, bumbling around LA through strip clubs and parties trying to find the daughter of a politician who made a dirty movie. Her film, a central prop, turns out to be more than porn as it’s laced with political schemes and scandals. When all of the players associated with the film start dying, only our Laurel and Hardy will stay on the case.This film is unfortunately anticlimactic, slow, and mind-numbingly profane. It forgets its first search for redemption and the original question “Am I a good person?” and settles into the pavement as the anti-heroes drive away to begin the search all over again. It’s a dead-end romp, so sadly The Nice Guys is anything but nice. 4/10.