noir

REVIEW: The Nice Guys (2016)

the nice guys movie posterUnlicensed private detective Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) is forced to team up with Holland March (Ryan Gosling), an unlucky private detective, when he needs to find a girl called Amelia (Margaret Qualley) the daughter of government official Judith Kuttner (Kim Basinger). Soon the mismatched pair realise they might be involved in a bigger and more dangerous case than either of them thought.

The Nice Guys is a lot of fun. This is mainly down to two things, the chemistry between Crowe and Gosling and the brilliant script. Healy and March really are a mismatched pair, they are so different but they work so well together and balance each other out. The script just highlights the chemistry between them. All the dialogue is witty and clever and there’s always some surprises.

Holly (Angourie Rice), Holland March’s daughter, treads the fine line between being overly-involved in the case and being smart and wise. Her character helps smooth out the rough edges of Healy and helps keep her dad on the right side of criminal.

As The Nice Guys is set in the 1970’s and is very much a noir film, there’s all the usual characters including femme fatales, conspiracies, thugs and there’s a lot of death and destruction. The Nice Guys revels in it all and even when the case itself is one of those that seems to get bigger and more convoluted as it goes along, in the end you realise that everything really is connected. Plus there’s still some great character moments in amongst all the laughs.

The Nice Guys is smart, hilarious and a little absurd but that just makes it even more brilliant. 5/5.

REVIEW: Revival Volume One: You’re Among Friends by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton

revival vol 1For one day in a rural central Wisconsin town, the dead came back to life. The townspeople must learn how to deal with loved ones returning to them while the government keeps the town in lockdown and there’s a media frenzy. Officer Dana Cypress has to deal with all this as well as solve a brutal murder and everyone’s a suspect, both dead and alive.

Revival is not like your usual zombie/undead story. People only came back from the dead on one night and aren’t necessarily on the rampage. A lot of people are happy to have their loved ones back and want to protect them from the media and religious fanatics.

Dana Cypress was an interesting lead (or co-lead really). She’s a cop and her father’s the head of the police but they don’t have a very good relationship but she really cares about her young son and her little sister Em. I’d say Em is the co-lead in this series as she has her own story running along with Dana’s, one with a lot of secrets and a mystery.

The story moves along slowly but not too slow that you get bored. It very much feels like a noir film with horror elements as Dana looks into the murder case and people continue to ask why and how did the dead come back to life. You’re Among Friends is so good because it give you enough information to keep you interested and to have a satisfying sort of first chapter with this volume, but it still lays out some sub-plots and unanswered questions making you want to read on. Sometimes with comic book trade paper backs, that’s a balance that doesn’t always work but Revival go it perfectly right.

I really liked the art style in Revival, it’s realistic but often creepy and atmospheric. The scenes in the woods are very grey and with the snow it’s like you can feel the cold radiating from the pages. The character designs are great too as everyone looks different (even background characters) so it’s

Revival is definitely a comic that’s not suitable for kids, there’s a lot of blood, violence and swearing, but if you’re a fan of horror and mysteries then you should give it a go. 4/5.