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Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong>Read more<\/p>\n When \u201cThe Nice Guys\u201d debuted 10 years ago, the writing was on the wall for the big-screen comedy. It came out sandwiched between \u201cCaptain America: Civil War\u201d and \u201cX-Men: Apocalypse.\u201d It opened against \u201cAngry Birds.\u201d The cartoon birds, Ryan Gosling<\/a> has lamented, \u201cjust destroyed us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re just so angry,\u201d Gosling once sighed.<\/p>\n And yet, marking its upcoming 10th anniversary this month, \u201cThe Nice Guys\u201d has established itself as one of the most beloved comedies of the last decade \u2014 a decade in which Hollywood<\/a> studios largely left the genre for dead. A 1970s-set comic noir directed and co-written by Shane Black, \u201cThe Nice Guys\u201d paired Gosling and Russell Crowe<\/a> as private eyes in a Los Angeles<\/a> crime caper that, a decade later, keeps getting better. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of interest in \u2018The Nice Guys\u2019 today that wasn\u2019t there when it opened. And the box office will attest to that,\u201d Black deadpanned in a recent interview. \u201cBut people find these things. I think there\u2019s kind of a joy of finding a movie on streaming or rental and then suddenly kind of realizing: How did I miss this? And \u2018The Nice Guys\u2019 was easy to miss.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, \u201cThe Nice Guys\u201d is almost always on, in reruns on cable or streaming services. Whenever it\u2019s on Netflix, it ranks among the most viewed on the platform. As more have become familiar with the comic talents of Gosling, in \u201cBarbie\u201d or \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d fans inevitably ask: \u201cBut have you seen \u2018The Nice Guys?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Black has known box-office smashes; he originated the \u201cLethal Weapon\u201d movies. But he\u2019s come to view films of his that didn\u2019t make money as his favorites. A year before \u201cThe Nice Guys,\u201d he made another cult favorite in \u201cKiss Kiss Bang Bang,\u201d which helped revive Robert Downey Jr.\u2019s career. (Downey makes a cameo as a corpse in \u201cThe Nice Guys.\u201d)<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s something to being the king of the midnight movie,\u201d says Black. \u201cIt\u2019s not the most lucrative thing in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Comedies go dark <\/p>\n Earlier in the 2000s, comedy was a moviegoing staple. The films of Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow and Melissa McCarthy were some of Hollywood\u2019s most lucrative. Movies like \u201cThe Hangover,\u201d \u201cThe 40-Year-Old Virgin\u201d and \u201cBridesmaids\u201d helped define the era.<\/p>\n But as the franchise film grew, and international ticket sales took on greater importance, the big-screen comedy began falling out of favor right around the time Warner Bros.\u2019 \u201cThe Nice Guys\u201d (with a $50 million budget) reached theaters, earning about $71 million worldwide at the time. Tastes were also changing. Horror took comedy\u2019s place as the genre of the day.<\/p>\n There are signs that trends may be shifting. This year, \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d and the just-launched \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2\u201d have put comedies in front at the multiplex. But over the last decade, funny movies have largely migrated to streaming (Netflix\u2019s pact with Adam Sandler was an early coup) or turned into the stuff of easy-to-miss cult.<\/p>\n Black’s initial germ for the film, writing with Anthony Bagarozzi, was inspired by detective stories like those of William Campbell Gault and Brett Halliday. He\u2019s read so many of them, he says, that \u201cit\u2019s almost a superpower.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI thought: There\u2019s so much joy here,\u201d Black says. \u201cThere\u2019s so much fun in plot and twists and capers. You light a fuse and these guys go on this wild caper, and in the end, it\u2019s just these two guys that are important. You can\u2019t really remember the caper but it was there to service the idea, the shape of: These guys are at it again.\u201d<\/p>\n If \u201cChinatown\u201d is a detective tale about a Los Angeles private eye without a car, \u201cThe Nice Guys\u201d is about a gumshoe who can\u2019t smell. Gosling\u2019s Holland March reluctantly joins with Crowe\u2019s Jackson Healy, an enforcer, on a missing girl case. The movie is bright and colorful but set against a seedy LA and the adult film industry. With Holland also is his young but wise daughter, Holly (a preternaturally good Angourie Rice).<\/p>\n An heir to \u2018Midnight Run\u2019 <\/p>\n