The Instigators Parent Guide

Rory (Matt Damon) needs $32,000, and he needs it soon. His best chance at quick cash is a job he got through a friend of a friend – a robbery. He’s never committed a felony before, but Rory thinks this is going to be a one-and-done deal. The guy who’s running the heist, Scalvo (Jack Harlow) is a bit dim, and the other guy on the job, Cobby (Casey Affleck) can barely stop running his mouth to breathe. That’s concerning because this job has no margin of error: The lads are planning to rob none other than Boston’s corrupt mayor, Mayor Miccelli (Ron Perlman), who’s reputedly sitting on a large war chest full of dirty money. If the guys can sneak in during the election, they should be able to walk out with a load of untraceable cash.

As you might expect, things start going wrong immediately – the armored car company moved the money in the middle of the night – hours before they got anywhere near it. Scalvo takes things into his own hands and shakes down the Mayor and everyone with him for whatever they’ve got in their pockets. There’s going to be no running from this – but that won’t stop the guys from trying.

If you go into this film expecting a hardboiled Boston crime thriller, you’ll be disappointed. This is a heist comedy, a constant parade of bad ideas, mistakes, and cosmic coincidence with a low body count. It’s fun and funny, but not usually all that tense. High stakes, low energy. I really liked the balance between silly and intense, and the high-speed heckling between Damon and Affleck keeps things moving in the downtime. I’m also fond of Hong Chau in just about everything I’ve seen her in, this included.

There is a cost, though, for this lighthearted slice of crime. In this case, I counted 200 f-bombs, although I’m perfectly willing to concede that I may have missed a dozen or so more. (That’s a pretty good margin for error, considering on average they’re dropping two a minute.) There’s also some violence, but only two people are actually killed. Drinking is surprisingly minor, despite the fact that one of our characters has a breathalyzer interlock on his motorcycle (which he cheats). If you cut the cussing, this film is a really easy PG-13.

I had more fun than I expected with The Instigators – further proof (if proof were needed) that low expectations are the secret to happiness. The film keeps you guessing, and the constant avalanche of misadventure on the part of our plucky protagonists is genuinely fun. If you can tolerate the endless swearing, there’s an easy-going crime comedy here that’s worth watching – but that’s a big “if”.