When I talk to people over the age of, say, 45, they often ask what happened to Hollywood. It used to make movies filled with stars playing compelling characters. Now, all it offers are pseudo-characters like who spend the whole movie making in-jokes about their branded cinematic universe. Where are the stories about human beings?
The short answer is that you can still find a few of them on streaming services. Take the new action comedy The Instigators, now streaming on AppleTV+ after a week in a handful of theaters. Directed by it stars (who co-wrote the script) and as likably maladroit Boston crooks who get caught in a robbery gone bad. Despite its forgettable title, The Instigators is an amusing throwback to classic heist pictures, buddy comedies and tales of urban malfeasance.
Damon plays Rory, a depressive screw-up desperate to earn money to pay child support and win back his son鈥檚 respect. As a one-time deal, he agrees to help rob the corrupt mayor of Boston 鈥� played by a hammy 鈥� at a big election night party where he鈥檒l be given cash bribes. Rory will get a cut of $30,000 which frankly sounds like a figure from the 1970s. So will his fellow crew member Cobby, a wisecracking ex-con played by Affleck.
Through no fault of theirs, the heist goes south in almost every way 鈥� the haul is a pittance, a cop gets killed, Cobby catches a bullet. Suddenly thrown together as sidekicks, Cobby and Rory run around Boston pursued by vengeful police, by the crime boss who set up the caper 鈥� that鈥檚 an also-hammy 鈥� and by the mayor鈥檚 personal enforcer, a slab of a man played by Ving Rhames in full monolith mode. And meanwhile, Cobby keeps bleeding.
Now, it鈥檚 an odd feature of movies about Boston that I鈥檝e never seen one that made me want to go there. Indeed, Boston boosters like Damon and Affleck seem to take a weird pride in showing off their city鈥檚 corruption, clannish neighborhoods and knuckleheaded blue-collar bravado. That鈥檚 certainly true of The Instigators.
It鈥檚 not merely that Cobby keeps making insider Boston jokes (in this he is like Deadpool) that won鈥檛 play anywhere else. The film鈥檚 whole sensibility is tinged by the great Boston writer George V. Higgins whose crime novels, like The Friends of Eddie Coyle, did much to shape the city鈥檚 self-image. It romanticizes its refusal to be romantic.
You get that in the performances by Damon and Affleck, two excellent but different actors, here playing guys who aren鈥檛 that bright. Where Affleck always seems somewhat off-kilter, even when playing ordinary guys, Damon exudes a normalcy that people now call 鈥渞elatable.鈥�
As the low-key, sensible Rory, Damon鈥檚 the movie鈥檚 deadpan wall against which Cobby endlessly hits the tennis ball of his jokey chatter. Affleck and Damon are longtime friends, and you can tell. It鈥檚 fun to watch them bicker and stew and drive each other a bit crazy.
Yet even as I was enjoying myself, I kept wishing The Instigators had the lucid snap of the movies it harks back to. While the plot is the kind of confection Hollywood used to be expert at making, the storytelling often feels sludgy, like an indie film. Secondary characters are too lazily drawn to be fun; good jokes too often get lost in the shuffle.
Deep in the movie, Cobby reveals a painful secret that should change Rory鈥檚 sense of his new partner. An old-time Hollywood director would鈥檝e known how to move us with both Cobby鈥檚 revelation and Rory鈥檚 reaction to it. Liman barely lets the emotion register. It鈥檚 not that he鈥檚 talentless. Most famous for The Bourne Identity and Mr. & Mrs. Smith 鈥� he recently did the remake of 鈥� he鈥檚 just out of practice at telling stories about actual human beings.
But he鈥檚 trying. And so are Affleck and Damon, who clearly are the film鈥檚 driving force. Back in the 1970s, The Instigators would probably have been the second or third best movie coming out on any given week. In 2024, it鈥檚 Hollywood鈥檚 best movie this month, at least for viewers who don鈥檛 marvel at Marvel.
Copyright 2024 NPR
