Review: Affleck & Damon banter like Butch & Sundance in Apple’s heist comedy ‘The Instigators’
“Affleck & Damon” has been a Hollywood brand since their Oscar-winning script for “Good Will Hunting” (1997). That was back when Matt Damon first showed main-character energy and Casey Affleck was still breaking in his baseball glove in a supporting role. While older brother Ben Affleck got to bask in the Best Picture glory of “Argo” (2012), Casey’s Best Actor win for “Manchester by the Sea” (2016) was overshadowed by past allegations.
Casey has laid pretty low since, returning with Damon for supporting roles in last year’s blockbuster Best Picture “Oppenheimer” (2023). Now, they share a double bill in the two-hander botched heist comedy “The Instigators,” ready to address his awkward history in the film’s opening act: “You the ex-con?” “Yeah, I did time, but you don’t gotta cast aspersions at me, guy.” “He’s a standup guy, he kept his mouth shut.” “I’m a professional f*ckin’ apologist.”
Set on the mean streets of Boston, the film follows suicidal divorced ex-Marine Rory (Damon), who needs exactly $32,480 to pay for child support. So, he joins drunken crook Cobby (Affleck) in a rag-tag scheme to infiltrate an election-night party at The Wharf to steal campaign cash from the corrupt mayor (Ron Perlman). When the mayor loses reelection and the robbery backfires, Rory and Cobby must go on the run with Rory’s therapist (Hong Chau).
Part of the fun of “The Instigators” is watching the slew of familiar faces popping up along the way. In addition to Chau (“The Whale”) and Perlman (“Sons of Anarchy), we get Paul Walter Hauser (“The Afterparty”), Ving Rhames (“Pulp Fiction”), Michael Stuhlbarg (“Dopesick”), Alfred Molina (“An Education”), Toby Jones (“Frost/Nixon”) and Baltimore’s André de Shields (“The Wiz”), not to mention rapper Jack Harlow and football star Rob Gronkowski.
Still, this movie belongs to Affleck and Damon, who are barely slicker than the Wet Bandits in “Home Alone” (1990) by leaving behind gas leaks that ignite action-movie fireballs behind them as they walk away flinching. These aren’t a pair of smart criminals; quite the contrary, their botched heist snowballs into an exponential series of blunders that might be unrealistic but are also a rollicking romp if you buy into the film’s irreverent wavelength.
Not everyone will be able to, especially critics with lingering animosity toward Affleck or the desire to knock Damon down a peg. Written by Affleck with Chuck Maclean, the script relies heavily on f-bombs, trafficking in South Boston profanity between otherwise snappy dialogue. Less is more like a wounded Affleck flopping on a couch, a bullet still inside of him, sarcastically joking about sipping warm Miller Lite while casually bleeding out.
In its best moments, the buddy-comedy banter recalls Paul Newman and Robert Redford in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) as Affleck says, “I guess I’ll go down to Bolivia all by myself.” I hesitate to even make that comparison because William Goldman’s script is one of the Top 10 ever written, while “The Instigators” is an Apple TV movie of the week. I guess a better comp is “Swingers” (1996) with the same “money” director Doug Liman.
Liman has quietly made a name for himself as one of the most underrated filmmakers of the 21st century with under-the-radar gems like “Edge of Tomorrow” (2014) and “American Made” (2017), not to mention “The Bourne Identity” (2002) before Paul Greengrass took over the sequels. Several scenes in “The Instigators” make us wish that Damon would go full Jason Bourne on his rivals, but it’s funnier to watch a hapless Damon bungle things.
Damon’s deadpan reaction to Affleck’s verbal diarrhea actually made me laugh out loud a few times, especially a scene of them worrying that their getaway truck has a John Wayne stowaway. While the plot is ridiculous, you could do a lot worse on a Friday night than firing up Apple TV+ to stream a crazy caper like “The Instigators.”
It’s also simultaneously playing in movie theaters, you know, to qualify for award season, but this ain’t an actual contender like “The Tender Bar” (2021). No, this theatrical run is to rake in a little extra cash, say, $32,480. Save your moviegoing money and stream it at home, but only after you’ve seen “Thelma,” the year’s best comedy.
As for “The Instigators,” the film sums itself up best during a high-speed car chase:
“You think that’s funny?”
“It’s not not funny.”