"Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" is a kick-out-the-jams blast: a jazzy, full-tilt boogie celebration of grindhouse pop and operatic grunge, directed and acted with a kind of frenzied, staccato magnetism that brings to mind not just Tarantino, but also early-Godard, before he started taking himself so seriously. It is also, I might add, one of the best movies of the year.
Indeed, it was Godard who famously opined, "All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl," a philosophy to which Shane Black, the writer and director of "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" has scrupulously adhered to throughout his career. With "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang," he arrives back on the scene in full force and his philosophy, it should be noted, is still the same — this is, essentially, another movie about guns and girls. In fact Pauline Kael used the phrase "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" in a negative sense to say that too often, kisses and bangs are all we get from a movie. Well, good for Pauline Kael, I suppose; Black and everybody in the movie knows it's about girls and guns and they don't give a damn — everybody is having too much fun to care.
Robert Downey Jr. is Harry Lockhart, a bumbling, low-level thief who makes a career out of boosting Xbox's from East Village toy stores until one night, when running away from the NYPD, he stumbles into an open audition for a new crime movie shooting in L.A. The producer (Larry Miller) loves his fierce intensity, gives him a role and flies him out to L.A. Quickly, Harry gets involved with a shadowy P.I. "Gay" Perry van Shrike (Val Kilmer). Gay Perry is assigned to take Harry out and give him "detective lessons" with the hopes of preparing him for his upcoming role. Perry takes once glance at Harry, with his roving eye, quick wit and seemingly preternatural tendency to royally screw things up and knows he's not detective material. Not surprisingly, chaos ensues from their union, in the noir-approved form of dead bodies.
In regards to performances, Downey and Kilmer are so good together, it is a wonder nobody ever paired them up before. Downey plays Harry as only he can — as a charming, self-destructive wiseass, who somehow has everybody rooting for him to succeed. Harry is smart and funny while still coming off as tough and immensely likeable. This is the role Downey was born to play. As Gay Perry, Kilmer seems wonderfully at home playing the quirky second lead whose job it is to make fun of Harry and advance the plot forward. There is a wonderful disconnect between Gay's tough-as-nails demeanor and his inherent femininity. Kilmer never resolves this dichotomy, which leads to some great comedic scenes.
As is the case in any film-noir, our heroes quickly come in contact with a girl who may not be all she seems. The dame in question is Harmony Faith Lane, a childhood buddy of Harry's. She is played by Michele Monaghan — she's smart, tough and funny and holds her own with two powerhouses like Kilmer and Downey.
When it comes to "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" the operative word is fun. This is a movie for people who appreciate good dialogue and off-the-wall plot twists. This is not, however, a movie you analyze. It'll just harsh the wonderful buzz the movie gives you. Heck, even if you wanted to, the labyrinthian plot makes the movie virtually impossible to deconstruct. Some people may argue Black has tripped the plot out too much to make the inner-workings of the plot inaccessible (and thus, impervious to criticism), but if you say that, you're missing the point. The movie is supposed to be inaccessible: all the great film-noirs are, and this movie is a direct homage to those movies.
I was reminded of the story about William Faulkner going up to Raymond Chandler at a party and saying he didn't understand the ending to "The Big Sleep." Chandler looked back at him, smiled, and said, "Neither do I." If you asked Shane Black the same question, you'd likely get a very similar answer. Better instead to sit back, relax and consider, ever so briefly, the ramifications of an evil monkey from the future who only says "Ficus."
Grade: A
