The Best Films of the Zeroes: 13

13. KISS KISS, BANG BANG. (2006)
Directed by Shane Black

Shane Black’s directorial debut is the purest piece of cinematic entertainment of the decade. Funny, intricate and sexy, this is a brilliantly knowing update of film noir, with a trio of sensational lead performances from Robert Downey Jr. (his career renaissance, later confirmed by IRON MAN and SHERLOCK HOLMES began here), Val Kilmer and the then unknown Michelle Monaghan.

Downey Jr. plays Harry Lockhart, a petty thief who on escaping from a toy store robbery blunders into an audition for a Hollywood film. His edgy charm works for him, and he’s invited to Los Angeles for further screen tests, where he’s introduced to Hollywood consultant and private eye Gay Perry (Kilmer), whose job it is to show Harry the ropes of private eye work as preparation for his possible film role.

Of course, for the traditional gumshoe, you need a love interest, here, Harry’s high-school sweetheart, turned Hollywood wannabe, played winningly by Monaghan (despite the fact she’s far too young to have been at school at the same time as Downey Jr.). The pair meet up again, of course, and Harry is instantly smitten once more.

The film benefits hugely from the performances. Even though she’s too young, Monaghan is just about perfect as the wannabe-starlet whose chances of making it in show business are almost over. Kilmer, meanwhile, has never been better than he is here, commanding and funny, and playing gloriously without ego, subverting his reputation in the process. The film, though, belongs squarely to Downey Jr., whose edgy charm dominates the entire film. Harry, in his hands is charming, yet vulnerable. He’s the sort of lovable fuck-up that it’s all too easy to imagine that the actor himself could have become in his years of addiction.

The real fun of KISS KISS, BANG BANG comes from the amount of fun that all involved appear to be having, from the reborn Downey Jr. to Kilmer, to Shane Black. Black was already a star screenwriter; his scripts for LETHAL WEAPON and THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT were hugely sought after, but he’d spent quite some time out of the business. Time, it seems, he spent well, working on this.

A heady mixture of mystery and comedy, KISS KISS, BANG BANG is gloriously entertaining from start to finish. Black isn’t afraid to investigate the shadier side of Hollywood, in fact he does so with relish, and the shares a darkness with the best Hollywood films noirs. Black’s direction is stylish, in addition to him getting the very best out of his actors. He keeps the action cracking along at a hectic pace – so much so that we feel almost as bewildered as Harry by his rapid journey from thief to potential star.

It’s a film that just crackles with humour and sexiness, while managing to tie in a story that could absolutely survive in a film with only a hundredth of the wit and invention that the protagonists bring to it.