‘The Instigators’ is an absurdly fun Boston heist film
Matt Damon reunites with Casey Affleck and director Doug Liman for a wild tale of crime and corruption in Beantown.
The plot of The Instigators is assembled largely from elements of popular movies of the past.
Matt Damon as a down-on-his-luck Boston guy who has a therapist? That happened in Good Will Hunting. Damon against the backdrop of Boston’s City Hall? The Departed. Matt Damon and Casey Affleck in a heist movie? Ocean’s Eleven and its sequels. Heists in Boston, with one of the Affleck brothers as both costar and co-writer, and Fenway Park a location? We saw that in The Town. A criminal’s therapist, who ends up helping him be a better criminal? That was in The Sopranos and also Analyze This.
Between all that and its status as a movie-going straight to Apple TV+ after a brief theatrical release, there are reasons to doubt The Instigators.
But you shouldn’t, because the movie is a great deal of fun. The Instigators has a creative premise, a strong and well-used cast, and just the right amount of humor. It uses Boston quite well, in a way not derivative of crime movies set in that city, whether The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Departed or The Town.
The film risks getting lost in the shuffle, as tends to happen with Apple movie releases, but it deserves much better than that.
The Instigators represents Damon's reunion with Casey Affleck, who starred in many films, including the Ocean’s series and Gerry. It also marks Damon’s first collaboration in two decades with Liman, who directed the first Bourne Identity film.
Damon and Affleck are Rory and Cobby, the leaders of a heist they’ve been pulled into. Rory is a Marine and novice criminal desperate to support his son, while Cobby is an ex-con.
The heist is planned for the night of Boston’s mayoral election. The mayor (Ron Perlman) is lavishly corrupt, and lots of free cash is expected to roll into his election night party, which the conspirators are eager to steal.
Everything, however, goes wrong, with bloodshed and less money turning up than expected. So Affleck and Damon spend most of the movie on the run throughout the greater Boston area, trying to outsmart their opponents with the help of Rory’s therapist (Hong Chau, given a lot more to do than just telling Damon, repeatedly, “it’s not your fault.”)
This is one of those movies where, everywhere you look, a great character actor is delivering a wild and over-the-top performance. Michael Stuhlbarg plays against type as a foul-mouthed, fur-coat-clad crime boss, frequently bullying an underling played by Alfred Molina. The largely-absent of late Ving Rhames plays a fearsome cop, while Paul Walter Hauser plays my favorite kind of Hauser character, the guy in the criminal plot who thinks he’s brilliant but is anything but.
Perlman, in particular, is a highlight as the crook mayor, while Toby Jones channels his Karl Rove from the Oliver Stone Bush movie as the mayor’s top adviser.
I’m impressed by just how funny the screenplay is. Written by Affleck along with Chuck Maclean, it offers memorably profane lines like “don’t turn this into another bag of dicks” (Stuhlbarg) and “I will rip your dick off with my bare hands straight off the FUPA” (Hauser).
Many people really love Ben Affleck’s 2010 Boston heist film The Town, which has, for some reason, been used as a motivational tactic by everyone from basketball coaches to congressional leaders. But The Instigators is the superior film, adding humor to a similar plot while dialing back on the dourness.
The Instigators lands in some theaters on August 2, and hits Apple TV+ on August 9.