The Instigators: Damon and Affleck Are Imperfect… but Entertaining

By Liz Braun

Rating: B

Fast, funny and entirely forgettable, The Instigators is an entertaining if shopworn heist story.

All the charm and the laughs rest with a strong cast led by Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. It doesn’t hurt that this film with this cast is set in Boston, where all those non-rhotic accents and intrusive ‘r’ sounds somehow summon up the cinemer goodwill associated with Good Will Hunting, The Town, The Depahted and similah.

Directed by Doug Liman — always a good sign — The Instigators begins with a defeated-looking ex-Marine named Rory (Damon) sitting in his therapist’s office. The shrink, Dr. Donna Rivera (Hong Chau) is concerned that Rory might be a danger to himself or others, but the guy just wants to pay off his child support debt any way possible.

Rory, though not a criminal, gets recruited for a robbery along with a wiseacre grifter fresh out of jail named Cobby (Affleck). They’ll be working with a not-so-smart henchman (Jack Harlow) and tasked with stealing the cash bribes that will accumulate on election night in the office of a crooked politician (Ron Perlman).

That's one way to pay off child-support debt...

It’s a simple robbery, and of course it all goes wrong.

When the dust settles, Rory and Cobby are on the run together, and The Instigators morphs into a mismatched buddy caper with spectacular high-speed chases, massive explosions, nicely choreographed car crashes and the odd hostage-taking.

It all plays out against a constant stream of amusing comment and sarcasm from Cobby and deadpan earnestness from Rory. Affleck, who co-wrote The Instigators with Chuck MacLean, is as woebegone a character here as he has been in so many other films, except bleakly and hilariously funny throughout.

His brief list of jail’s positive points, for example, is a particularly nihilistic and funny moment, and the story is littered with similarly fleeting bits of comedy. There’s a whole schtick about fleeing to Montreal that’s bound to amuse Canadian viewers. Meanwhile, there appears to be inside visual jokes about police from Vermont or New Hampshire that will perhaps appeal to others in the audience.

The film and its cast often seem to be mocking the similar (but more familiar) heist/Boston/action/drama features in which they’ve all appeared. But that could be in the eye of the beholder.

The Instigators has a hefty support cast that includes Michael Stuhlbarg and Alfred Molina as sort-of bad guys, as well as Ving Rhames, Toby Jones, Rob Gronkowski and Andre De Shields.

Just about everyone is playing a character marked by ineptitude — The Instigators is fuelled by offhand failure and screw-ups, which is inherently funny. Likewise inherently funny is the sight of Bourne as a middle-aged failed dad or the terrifying Boris Pash of Oppenheimer as a half-hearted criminal better suited to stand-up.

So, should The Instigators be viewed as a lengthy inside joke? Consider the soundtrack, with its Boomer-Gen song choices that are laugh-out-loud funny for their wrong-headed obviousness. There’s a certain knowing element to this undertaking that winks at the glory days of all concerned, even as it nods to the world o’ streaming.

At any rate, you will be entertained.

The Instigators. Directed by Doug Liman, written by Casey Affleck and Chuck MacLean. Starring Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Hong Chau. Streaming on AppleTV +