The Instigators
A trio of Boston thieves get more than they bargained for in Doug Liman’s ragged, frequently chucklesome heist actioner.
Therapy on wheels: Hong Chau, Casey Affleck and Matt Damon
Image courtesy of Piece Of Magic Entertainment
Who doesn’t love a heist movie? Throw in Matt Damon from Ocean’s Eleven, Ving Rhames from Mission: Impossible and get the director of The Bourne Identity on board and you should have a dish made in heaven. Except that The Instigators is an anti-heist movie and with its abundance of Scorsese-mouthed lowlifes it feels more like something cooked up by Steven Soderbergh (Logan Lucky) on a low heat. Nonetheless, one can see why Jason Bourne himself, Matt Damon, would have opted to co-produce this curio with his old sparring partner Ben Affleck from a script by Chuck Maclean and Affleck’s younger sibling Casey. There’s an air of old boy mischief about it all that subverts the crime genre with a myriad of loose ends, profanity and a deep-seated tongue in the jawbone. It’s offbeat, grimy and unpredictable, with enough spontaneously funny moments to become a cult favourite.
Playing manfully against type, Matt Damon is a grey-haired, sixtysomething washed-up mechanic who desperately needs $32,480 to fix a domestic blackhole. That $32,480 figure is oft repeated as the narrative gains momentum and things spiral increasingly out of control and the winnings fluctuate on an almost hourly basis. At one point a security guard asks the armed gang if they need a smaller bag, scoring the first laugh in a scattershot handful of chucklesome moments. Damon’s Rory teams up with two other sorry souls, Cobby (Casey Affleck) and Scalvo (Jack Harlow), who are at the bidding of some pretty rough types, headed by Michael Stuhlbarg's splenetic, foul-mouthed mobster.
The film’s ace card is that one never knows where it’s headed next and that Rory and Cobby seem to stay alive against all the odds. The comedy shifts up a gear when they reluctantly kidnap Rory’s therapist Dr Rivera (Hong Chau) who is unable to break character and constantly asks Rory how he’s feeling now. Badgered by Cobby for some free advice, she tells him that he’s obviously suffering from “adult disinherited social engagement disorder, probably stemming from an early childhood disrupted attachment complex.” That’ll teach him. Chau never alerts the viewer to the comedy in her performance, which is why she’s one of the funniest character actors in Hollywood, racking up memorable turns in Downsizing (with Matt Damon), The Whale and The Menu. And when the action really kicks in, we are reminded that, of course, Doug Liman did actually direct Matt Damon in The Bourne Identity. Still, it’s a hit-and-miss affair and hardly a crowd-pleaser, more likely to appeal to a certain male demographic that appreciates a bit of grit in their popcorn. But Hong Chau makes it that much more special, whether it’s her choice of music during a white-knuckle car chase (Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’) or her way with deadpan one-liners (“I like you better when you’re crying”).
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones, Jack Harlow, Ron Perlman, André De Shields, Ronnie Cho, Scout Backus.
Dir Doug Liman, Pro Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jeff Robinov, John Graham and Kevin J. Walsh, Screenplay Chuck Maclean and Casey Affleck, Ph Henry Braham, Pro Des Greg Berry, Ed Saar Klein, Music Christophe Beck, Costumes Charlese Antoinette Jones.
Apple Studios/Artists Equity/Studio 8/The Walsh Company-Piece Of Magic Entertainment/Apple TV+.
101 mins. USA. 2024. UK and US Rel: 9 August 2024. Cert. 15.
