If you recently discovered The Nice Guys after watching Ryan Gosling in Barbie and are looking for something similar, director Shane Black’s first film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is his earlier take on the buddy action-comedy genre — the seeds of what Black perfected in The Nice Guys were planted in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Like in The Nice Guys, there’s a private investigator at the center of the story, only instead of teaming up with an enforcer-for-hire, he’s working with a petty thief posing as an actor. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang stars Robert Downey Jr. as the burglar who also acts as the movie’s narrator, Harry Lockhart, opposite Val Kilmer as the P.I., referred to exclusively as Gay Perry; Michelle Monaghan completes their trio as Harmony, Harry’s childhood crush who moved to Los Angeles and ends up embroiled in the same murder investigation as the two men. The plot itself is a lot of fun. It’s twisty and the perfect satirical take on the noir crime genre, especially considering it takes some elements from a real 1940s detective novel. But it’s the acting that truly makes this movie what it is. It’s such a treat to watch Downey Jr. and Kilmer go toe-to-toe with this genuinely funny material; the tight dialogue and their bantering back-and-forth is what puts the “comedy” in this “dark comedy.”
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
