The only thing that could make The Instigators more of a Boston movie is if Chris Evans showed up, sporting a Pats jersey and his real, non-Captain America accent. Yet this crime comedy has all the other elements one would expect from a Boston-set film, including a cameo from Gronk and the requisite inclusion of “Fuck your mother.” Shot in and around the Massachusetts capital, The Instigators stars and was produced by Matt Damon, was co-written by and stars one Affleck brother (Casey), and was produced by the other (Ben). Some of its local references might require Googling for non-natives, and it seems to embody the historically scrappy ethos of Beantown with its blue-collar heroes who just want to make a buck and make a life. And like the city of Boston, The Instigators is also pretty good, but nowhere near as great as it thinks it is.
All jokes from this New Yorker aside, The Instigators is a perfectly fine movie, well-made by its well-known director and featuring so much solid work from solid actors that it’s hard to dislike but equally difficult to love. With Doug Liman at the helm and a script from Casey Affleck and Chuck MacLean (City on a Hill), it’s an entertaining and engaging enough heist movie.
Damon stars as Rory, a terse vet and divorced dad desperate to make a very specific amount of money, and Casey Affleck is Cobby, a mouthy, boozy ex-con with connections to the criminal underworld. As they try to pull off the scheme of a local aspiring crime lord (Michael Stuhlbarg) to rob the corrupt mayoral incumbent (Ron Perlman), their interactions are filled with an enjoyable rancor.
Things just keep going wrong at every turn, but these two guys keep barely outsmahting all the people who are after them. There’s the endless wave of anonymous cops, of course, but they’re also pursued by lackeys of the criminal who tasked them with the job, as well as Frank Toomey (Ving Rhames), a special ops officer who is the sole occupant of an actual tank — and an actual tank himself — that doggedly follows this unlikely pair all over Massachusetts. Their only help comes from Rory’s therapist, Dr. Donna Rivera (Hong Chau), who is sympathetic to her patient’s plight.
The Instigators is rife with a humorous cynicism about politics and people in general. No one is above breaking the law if the price is right or their heart is in the right place. Those in positions of authority on the so-called “right side of the law” are no more righteous — and are frequently less so — than those without a government job, whether as police or an elected official. It’s a bit of a grim outlook, but The Instigators keeps things relatively light amidst all the corruption.
Liman is a noted action director, and he keeps things moving here with some smaller set pieces. There’s nothing at the scale of The Bourne Identity or Edge of Tomorrow, but these action scenes work well within this film’s context and its stakes. Yet while Liman is more famous for his action movies, The Instigators is primarily driven by its characters and its cast. After both appearing in Gerry and the Ocean’s franchise among other films, Damon and Affleck predictably work about as well together as Damon and the other Affleck do, with their oppositional on-screen personalities here playing nicely off each other. Damon continues to be an impressive actor as much as an A-list star, and Affleck is genuinely funny in ways that I didn’t expect, since he has largely focused on more serious roles over the last decade.
For the supporting cast, Chau brings a therapist’s calming mien, but she also brooks no nonsense from Affleck’s joker. Rhames is doing Rhames shit, which I’m always here for. Though he was born in New York, Perlman seems born to play an entertainingly corrupt Boston politician, and we get a bonus Toby Jones as his lawyer. Hadestown’s André De Shields has a small part as a tough but chill bar owner. Stuhlbarg clearly loves employing a thick Boston accent and is delightfully menacing. Meanwhile Alfred Molina is his literal partner-in-crime, and I just wanted to see more of him, which is how I felt about most of these people while still being entirely okay with when the movie ended.
Liman was famously pissed that his last movie, the Road House remake, went direct to Prime Video, and he was right. Road House wasn’t the pinnacle of anyone’s on-screen career (except maybe the charmless Conor McGregor), but it was a good time with some raucous fights that would have been a delight to watch on a big screen with the reactions of the audience. Meanwhile, The Instigators got a week in theaters before its premiere on Apple TV+, but it’s the type of movie where not a ton is likely lost by seeing it on a small screen. It’s adequately fun and funny, but not worth the multi-hour trip outside your home. (Just like Boston.)
B
“The Instigators” is now in theaters; it debuts Friday on Apple TV+.
