Comedy duos in movies have not worked for a while. I’m not sure what has taken over the sub-genre that now pits every single mainstream star in front of the other, but they just don’t seem to understand what makes them click. The last time two stars who really clicked and made things funny as hell were Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in the 2016 buddy comedy ‘The Nice Guys.’ It’s 2024, and I think I have finally found a new movie that I can put right beside Shane Black’s movie. Doug Liman’s ‘The Instigators,’ which stars Casey Affleck and Matt Demon as unlikely partners in a theft gone wrong, takes the cake for bringing back the buddy comedy genre in all its glory.
For starters, it gets the casting right. Matt Damon stars as Rory, a suicidal, middle-aged man who wants to make enough money for his kids before he checks out. When we first meet him, he is in a session with his therapist, Dr. Donna Rivera (played by the superb Hong Chau). However, we can see that he is not doing well. When we meet him next, he is, somehow, reluctantly partnered up with Cobby (Casey Affleck) – an ex-convict and a motormouth, for a job they need to do for Mr. Besegai (Michael Stuhlbarg). There’s big money involved because the job involves robbing the corrupt Mayor Miccelli (Ron Perlman) of the ill-gained funds that he has in store before he can run for office again. However, Rory and Cobby fuck up the job, or more plainly, the job was already fucked before they actually go to put their plan in place, and so they now have to flee the scene and the people pursuing them – together.
Now, there have been numerous heist-gone-wrong comedies over the years, but none of them involves one of the men getting therapy while a high-speed car chase plays out on Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown.’ Also, none of them feature Casey Affleck as a man who just wouldn’t shut up. As Cobby, Casey, who has also co-written the film, is all over the place in ‘The Instigators’ for all the right reasons. Since Damon’s Rory is a confused, naive, but slightly intelligent partner in crime, the two characters play off each other brilliantly. Their chemistry is crackling, and since they are up there on the screen for almost the entirety of the film, none of the sequences are dull. Their comic timing is impeccable, and since most of the humor comes from the situational comedy nature of the movie or Affleck’s commentary about the said situational nature they find themselves in, the jokes almost always land.
Doug Liman, who directed the remake of “Road House” for Prime Video earlier in the year, seems to have found his footing this time around. The film builds up a chaotic mess, and Liman is able to control the chaos in a way that makes things interesting and engaging. Sure, the film’s premise is familiar, and these characters you’ll not really remember for a long time afterward (especially the ones played by Alfred Molina, Michael Stuhlbarg, Ron Perlman, Toby Jones, and Ving Rhames), but while you are with the film, it keeps you happy, and unlike Rory, you will have a laugh or two.
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