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Casey Affleck and Matt Damon star in a wrong robbery in Boston.
By Alissa Wilkinson
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The most productive joke in “The Instigators” is a joke about the public school curriculum in Quincy, the suburb just south of Boston, that outsiders never pronounce correctly. (It’s closer to a “z” than an “s. “) It turns out to be an inside joke, as do the following affectionate attacks on other localities, jargon, and corrupt politicians in Greater Boston. It’s kind of a heist movie, but first and foremost it’s a Boston movie, full of Boston kids and Boston accents, (Southern) Boston locations, and Boston humor. Heck, “The Instigators” is almost Boston: the immersive experience.
It may not surprise anyone to learn that it is produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and that it stars Damon along with the film’s co-star, Casey Affleck. The other is Chuck MacLean, the author and executive producer of “City on a Hill,” Showtime’s three-season drama about, as you might have guessed, Boston.
“The Instigators” director Doug Liman was born and raised in New York. But he and Damon discovered good fortune by participating in 2002’s “The Bourne Identity. ” It’s their first joint assignment since that good fortune, and it’s studded with stars: Joining Affleck and Damon are Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alfred Molina , Ving Rhames, Paul Walter Hauser, Toby Jones, Ron Perlman and rapper Jack Harlow (in his second film role).
Somehow, in 2024, all that strength still deserves a one-week theatrical release in August’s dead zone and a quick transfer to streaming. With a few weeks in theaters to grow, I can believe it’s going well, basically because it’s so quiet. “The Instigators” begins as a riff on “Ocean’s 11,” with an organization of petty thieves assembled through a stormy crime boss, Mr. S. Simpson. Besegai (Stuhlbarg), to make a lot of paintings and never talk about it again. It turns out that the incumbent mayor (Perlman, preferably elected) is a criminal, who almost promises his re-election, and the bribes in money that will be taken to his victory ball make it an ideal job. .
Some members of the group, such as Rory (Damon), actually want the money; He is depressed and desperate and needs his son’s support, and his therapist (Chau) is worried about him. Others, like Cobby (Casey Affleck) and Scalvo (Harlow), are precisely the kind of people who do this kind of thing. But Mr. Besegai is not Mr. Ocean, for he has had no luck. From the beginning, everything goes wrong and Cobby and Rory are involved in a comedy of blunders.
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