As a longtime fan of the Affleck-Damon duo, I must say that watching “The Instigators” was a rollercoaster ride, much like their careers themselves. It’s as if Casey Affleck took on the role of the unpredictable wildcard in this production, leaving Matt Damon scrambling to keep up, much like the infamous game of catch they seem to be playing in real life.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, both hailing from the Boston area, have maintained a highly publicized bromance in Hollywood since their breakout success with “Good Will Hunting,” where they portrayed each other as close friends. Their friendship has endured through professional highs and lows, various public relationships, and more recently, fan cams that suggested a deeper bond, which was further monetized through Dunkin’ Donuts commercials. The pair sometimes appear as two halves of one star, with Damon being versatile, intelligent, and generally superior on screen compared to his public appearances, while Affleck is a tabloid staple who struggles with his acting career. This dynamic becomes confusing when Casey Affleck enters the picture, as he resembles Ben and acts alongside Matt, but has a more questionable off-screen record and a sharper, abrasive demeanor that can give off a dirty persona. In Gus Van Sant’s “Gerry,” it was fitting that one character strangled the other out of compassion and frustration when they got lost in the desert. Similarly, in “The Instigators,” their characters, despite eventually understanding each other, show no desire to be around one another.
The dynamic in this film, particularly between Casey Affleck and Matt Damon, is detrimental to what’s supposed to be a light-hearted buddy film but also intriguingly unique. Casey Affleck wrote the screenplay for “The Instigators,” directed by Doug Liman, and while there’s no indication that any other actor was intended for his role, the movie seems to subtly reference the “Matt and Ben Show.” As Rory, a depressed ex-Marine venturing into criminal activities to pay off debts from his failed marriage, Damon appears to be waiting for a more familiar co-star who never materializes. Instead, Affleck delivers sharp retorts that often outshine Damon’s responses.
Regarding the film “The Instigators”, although it faces some issues, its cast is quite impressive. Hong Chau delivers a commendable performance as Dr. Donna Rivera, a psychiatrist who finds herself entangled in a chaotic situation when a planned robbery goes awry. The character of Mayor Miccelli, played by Ron Perlman, seems perfect for a role in “Dick Tracy” without any makeup. Toby Jones brings humor as the squirrelly lawyer, while Michael Stuhlbarg appears to be enjoying himself most, portraying a local gangster in a fur coat. Alfred Molina plays his bakery-owning partner. Ving Rhames and Paul Walter Hauser offer stiff competition in their roles as a tank-driving police officer and a chain-wearing thug respectively. Jack Harlow is also part of the ensemble, but his role isn’t clearly explained.
The initial incident, which involves a robbery attempt targeting Miccelli’s kickbacks, could also be criticized for its chaotic progression leading to Rory and Cobby fleeing. Liman seems to struggle with the escalating series of disasters, but it does set the stage for the number of Boston-centric jokes to come. The humor is rapid and abundant, from Cobby’s claim that car theft is a required extracurricular in Quincy to jokes about overly aggressive security guards who flunked their State Police tests, all the way to the consensus that Montreal, a place nobody has visited, is where you go when you need to disappear permanently. In essence, The Instigators can be seen as ethnic comedy, with being a white man from Boston considered its own unique ethnicity – a perspective Damon and the Afflecks have often advocated throughout their careers. Whether these local nuances and inside jokes add much is debatable, but they certainly differentiate this film from other mediocre crime movies. While having Ben in it might have been better, it would likely have resulted in another installment of their self-romanticized friendship rather than a movie that grapples with its internal conflicts for most of its duration.
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2024-08-02 00:53