The Best Movies You Haven't Seen: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
OK, so I thought this might be a fun idea for a series. Posting up the best movies I don't think many others have seen, ones I'd like to share with more people. This isn't a thread for typical "mainstream" films (for instance, I loved Star Trek and want to evangelize about it, but it really doesn't need any help in the publicity department, does it?), but the smaller, older, cult or forgotten films that I've miraculously discovered and fallen in love with and want to share.
I'm going to try to actually be kinda diligent about this; I hope to post up one at week, but we'll see just how long that lasts. So I'm not going to just put up a list and let that be it.
I think I'll start off with…
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
This is a neo-noir action comedy from 2005, the directorial debut of screenwriter Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Monster Squad, Last Action Hero, and another overlooked gem, The Long Kiss Goodnight). It was the first stop on Robert Downey Jr.’s comeback trail, and the only good thing Val Kilmer’s done in quite a long time. Downey plays Harry Lockhart, a small-time hood who literally stumbles into the motion picture industry and gets a job playing a private investigator. He’s paired with real detective Perry van Shrike (Val Kilmer) as preparation for his role. Harry and Perry (“Gay Perry,” commonly) wind up intertwined in a salacious murder mystery straight out of pulpy noir fiction, with Harry’s childhood sweetheart-cum-aspiring actress Harmony (a fun and adorable Michelle Monaghan) along for the ride.
The fun of this film is in Downey’s proto-Downey performance, Kilmer’s performance as the…uh, straight man to Downey’s incompetent bungler, and a metafiction angle that keeps the whole thing moving at a whiplash-inducing pace, with Downey’s rapid-fire narration breaking the fourth wall left and right (“By now you may wonder how I wound up here. Or, maybe not. Maybe you wonder how silly putty picks shit up from comic books. The point is, I don't see another Goddamn narrator, so pipe down.”).
The performances are absolutely top-notch, with Downey and Kilmer both giving what I would consider to be their best-ever performances (that’s saying something, as Downey is one of my favorite actors, and one of the rarified few that I will watch in anything). The film winds up so deliriously, deliciously meta that it folds back on itself like the world’s most violent Möbius strip, packed with witty one-liners and plenty of action, as well as enjoyable characters and crackerjack direction (the guy’s good; I hope directs more stuff soon). On a friend’s recommendation, I picked this up used for a $1.50, and it quickly rocketed to being one of my all-time favorite films, one of the most purely fun movies I’ve ever seen.
Highest possible recommendation.