Movie Review: ‘The Instigators’

‘The Instigators’ won’t make you laugh out loud or leave much of an impression, but its stars’ easy chemistry gets you through its off-the-rails plot.

(L to R) Matt Damon and Casey Affleck in 'The Instigators'. Photo: Apple TV+.

In theaters now and streaming on Apple TV+ on August 9 is ‘The Instigators,’ directed by Doug Liman and starring Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alfred Molina, Ving Rhames, Paul Walter Hauser, Toby Jones, and Ron Perlman.

Initial Thoughts

(L to R) Matt Damon and Casey Affleck promoting 'The Instigators'. Photo: Apple TV+.

Doug Liman hasn’t had a good time with his chosen profession in recent years. The director’s last three efforts, ‘Chaos Walking,’ ‘Locked Down,’ and ‘Road House,’ have all ranged somewhere between mediocre and unwatchable, a steep fall for the filmmaker who once brought us ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ and ‘The Bourne Identity.’ His latest outing, the crime caper comedy ‘The Instigators,’ isn’t a great piece of work, but it’s considerably more entertaining that his previous few films even if it runs into its own problems.

Much of the entertainment value comes from stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck (the latter of whom also co-wrote the screenplay with fellow Bostonian Chuck Maclean), whose longtime real-life friendship translates easily into an onscreen chemistry even as their characters are mostly at odds with each other. The two leads are backed up by a generously stacked cast, including the likes of Hong Chau, Ron Perlman, Alfred Molina, Michael Stuhlbarg, and others, all of whom are terrific to watch even if some of them get short-changed by the shaggy script. Like Affleck’s character, a cynical ex-con who’s smarter and has a bigger mouth than everyone else in the room, ‘The Instigators’ is fun until it becomes irritating.

Story and Direction

(L to R) Casey Affleck, director Doug Liman and Matt Damon on the set of 'The Instigators'. Photo: Apple TV+.

Damon plays Rory, a divorced ex-Marine who has fallen on hard times and is hinting enough at suicide to alarm his therapist, Dr. Rivera (Chau). But before Rory can “cash in his ticket,” as he says, he has one thing left to do: he wants to see his son, but in order to make that happen he needs to settle exactly $32,480 in child support and other payments. And the only way for him to do that is to participate in a heist being orchestrated by lower-tier mob boss Mr. Besegai (Stuhlbarg) and his right-hand man Richie (Molina), who operate out of a local bakery.

Besegai’s plan is for a small group of thieves to infiltrate the election headquarters of the corrupt Mayor Miccelli (Perlman), whose re-election is all but reassured and who collects a staggering amount of cash “gifts” every election night from stakeholders who want to curry favor with him. The idea is to go in after the election night party is over and stick the place up, grabbing the cash from the mayor and escaping by boat behind the building. In addition to Rory, the crew will consist of Cobby (Affleck) and Scalvo (Jack Harlow), the latter a hot-headed hood who Mr. Besegai puts in charge of the operation.

Aside from Scalvo being trigger-happy and Rory being utterly inexperienced at crime (plus depressed and none-too-bright), a series of other variables – such as Miccelli losing the election in an upset – turns the plan completely upside-down. This is the best part of ‘The Instigators’: normally a film like this leads up to the big heist in the third act, and even if things go wrong, the crew improvises their way through it. Here the caper goes sideways in the first half-hour, with every carefully laid-out aspect of the plan going completely in the opposite direction.

(L to R) Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Hong Chau and director Doug Liman from Apple Original Films’ “The Instigators” make an appearance at View Boston. Photo: Marion Curtis / Starpix for Apple Original Films.

That leaves Rory and an injured Cobby as unlikely partners and fugitives, fleeing the scene with little cash but with a piece of personal property that’s extremely valuable to the bellowing mayor. After its offbeat first third, ‘The Instigators’ becomes more episodic and unbelievable as Rory and Cobby go on the run, evading hitmen and corrupt cops (including one menacing Special Ops officer played by Ving Rhames) through a series of chases, explosions, and narrow escapes -- with Dr. Rivera somehow hitching along as a fake hostage.

The contrivances necessary to get Rivera into and out of the situation, then back in it again later, also lead to some of the most tonally off moments in the movie. One extended, destructive chase sequence finds Rivera dispensing cliched therapeutic bromides to Rory (“Think about the person you want to be,” she offers improbably) as they careen through the streets of Beantown with a dozen police cars in pursuit. Because this is essentially a comedy, the stakes never feel as real as they could – even with compromised cops, seedy lowlife thugs, and political corruption rampant throughout the story, the script and Liman’s freewheeling direction keep this light and all on a surface level, leading to a somewhat tiresome finale.

The Cast

(L to R) Hong Chau, Casey Affleck and Matt Damon in 'The Instigators'. Photo: Apple TV+.

Even as the air starts to seep out of the script, ‘The Instigators’ (an odd title, since Rory and Cobby don’t instigate anything, but merely react to their changing circumstances) is kept buoyant through its ensemble of sturdy, always reliable players. As mentioned earlier, Damon and Affleck provide most of the appeal here: the way that Damon’s morose straight man and Affleck’s jaded, seen-it-all crook bounce off each other provides most of the movie’s fun. Damon’s Rory has a wounded working-class decency, a guy who’s been pushed to the edge both by his own mistakes and things not in his control who only gradually retakes command of his own destiny as best he can.

Affleck’s Cobby is the source of most of the movie’s humor, as his disaffected demeanor, rogue-ish charm, and constant barrage of jokes, pokes, and non-sequiturs hide a street-level, quick-on-his-feet intelligence that gets him and Rory both into and out of every scrape. He becomes irritating not just to his targets but to us as well, and we’re kind of onboard when some of those targets tell him to shut the f**k up.

Hong Chau is always superb even though she has the least plausible material to work with and a character who verges in the edge of “therapist stereotype.” The rest, especially Stuhlbarg, Molina, Toby Jones (as Miccelli’s mild-mannered accountant), and Perlman as his Trumpy, self-serving boss, are all a pleasure to watch even if their characters are paper-thin.

Final Thoughts

(L to R) Casey Affleck and Matt Damon promoting 'The Instigators'. Photo: Apple TV+.

“Paper-thin” is a good way to describe ‘The Instigators’: it all operates on a surface level, never resonating emotionally too much and not quite settling on the right balance of comedy, action, and crime thriller. It will make you laugh – or perhaps chuckle quietly – without building to a real comic crescendo.

Yet Liman keeps it all moving (only the extended finale drags out a bit), gets us in and out of the story in 90 minutes, and provides ample opportunity to watch Damon and Affleck have some fun. There are far worse ways to spend an hour-and-a-half – including a few that Doug Liman has provided before this.

‘The Instigators’ receives 6.5 out of 10 stars.

The Instigators

"Worst. Heist. Ever."

R1 hr 42 minAug 8th, 2024

Showtimes & Tickets

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What is the plot of ‘The Instigators’?

A desperate, depressed dad (Matt Damon) and a cynical, wisecracking ex-con (Casey Affleck) find themselves roped into a brazen robbery that quickly goes sideways, with the unlikely duo soon hunted by hitmen, the police, the corrupt mayor of Boston, and the dad’s very concerned therapist (Hong Chau).