Matt Damon and Casey Affleck Make an Easy Lift in The Instigators

The aesthetics of the streaming movie have become so broad, and so broadly dismissed, that they’re nearly as vibes-based as an eclectic auteur – or maybe more like the pornography non-definition offered by Justice Potter Stewart in the 1960s: “I know it when I see it.” It’s not a great look for criticism, even if it’s in response to a series of not-great looks for movies, which, indeed, do often look worse – glossier, more plastic, weightless – on the major streaming services. Moreover, it fails in the case of a movie like The Instigators, which by most metrics should feel like a “real” film, despite a paltry one-week theatrical release before Apple puts it on their platform. It has a deep bench of acting talent, not just one or two stars getting a clear lion’s share of the required upfront payments; much of it has clearly been shot in actual Boston locations, befitting its favorite-sons stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck (well, maybe distant-third-favorite on the latter); and, minus end credits, it comes in pretty damn close to a slick 90 minutes, perfect for a semi-comic heist thriller.

That expedience comes courtesy of director Doug Liman, who knows his way around both big-screen spectacle and looser, more close-up humanity. In fact, Liman’s last heist picture, Locked Down, was the rare savvy use of the direct-to-streaming model: A movie shot, yes, largely during COVID lockdown, starting in a fixed location but eventually expanding out, eerily and excitingly, to real-life London locations for its climactic heist, a more Liman-y version of his Mr. and Mrs. Smith. More recently, Liman expressed consternation over his Road House remake not playing in theaters, and The Instigators takes a similarly jaunty, rough-and-tumble approach to its genre that feels ready for a Friday night out. The movie doesn’t waste much time explaining why Rory (Matt Damon), a mostly-upstanding ex-Marine, is entertaining the idea of joining up with a ragtag crew to rob a cash-heavy victory party for Boston’s corrupt mayor (Ron Perlman) – at least not up front. Rory meets wiseass Cobby (Casey Affleck) and short-fused Scalvo (Jack Harlow) so quickly that it’s momentarily confusing: Is he supposed to know these guys already? No, they’ve just been recruited by a local criminal (Michael Stuhlbarg) for what Damon’s character in the Ocean’s series would call a real smash-and-grab operation (not sarcastically, this time).

The plan is laid out simply and quickly, and goes wrong even quicker. A major misreading of the political temperature leaves the boys with little cash but a possible substitute in the form of a bracelet nicked from hizzoner himself. The rest of the movie is a scramble to get away, preferably with the money that Rory – here it comes – needs to make good on the back child-support payments that have made him ashamed to show his face around his semi-estranged family. This desperation ensnares Rory’s therapist Donna (Hong Chau), making The Instigators perhaps the only film of 2024 to bring to mind Barry Levinson’s forgotten 2001 crime comedy Bandits.

If this sounds fun, well, yeah, a lot of it is. It’s right in Liman’s wheelhouse – and so far into Damon and Affleck’s that it almost feels like a parody, as if Affleck is making a movie spinoff of his fake SNL ad for Dunkin Donuts (yes, the brand makes a cameo here too, presumably as a substitute for Casey’s brother Ben). Affleck, who also co-wrote the screenplay, plays his least doleful role in ages; he’s very funny as Cobby, who never met a friend, coworker or stranger he couldn’t mouth off to, even if there’s a touch of pride (or at least a lack of self-examination) to this relatively uncritical characterization. Damon makes an appealing straight man, more so before the serious-minded additions to his character get pasted on in the back half. The movie has some of the subtextual chumminess of those Ocean’s movies that Damon and Affleck made together (albeit rarely sharing scenes), thanks to the sheer number of reunions taking place here: Damon and Affleck were also a bickering duo in the more existential Gerry; Liman and Damon made the first and best Bourne movie together; Damon and Chau were both terrific in the underrated Downsizing. And none of the players here were in Ben Affleck’s The Town, but this feels like a companion piece to that one, too, in both its entertainment value and occasional overplayed hangdog Damon-Affleck pathos.

Why, then, does The Instigators never really build into a movie as satisfying as any of those aforementioned titles? Is it some ineffable streaming-movie curse that it winds up feeling insubstantial, even by the standards of a 90-minute comic thriller? It may have to do with how the screenplay handles the roster of colorful characters played by a stacked cast – Stuhlbarg, Perlman, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Paul Walter Hauser – in a way that makes them feel like obligatory vehicles for accents (or, in the case of Rhames, signature hats) rather than even half-convincing people. Despite the location work and Liman’s typically energetic camerawork, this version of Boston doesn’t feel particularly lived-in; it could almost pass for the 2020-era London of Locked Down, and what should be (and often is) a minor pleasure becomes just plain minor, especially when the movie leaves you wondering if it was reverse-engineered, starting with the title, from Apple’s always-generous needle-drop budget. It’s almost as if you can see the streaming bubble burst on screen, in too-clear HD.

Director: Doug Liman
Writer: Casey Affleck, Chuck Maclean
Starring: Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Michael Stuhlbarg, Hong Chau, Ron Perlman, Ving Rhames
Release Date: August 2, 2024 (limited); August 9, 2024 (Apple TV+)

Jesse Hassenger is associate movies editor at Paste. He also writes about movies and other pop-culture stuff for a bunch of outlets including A.V. Club, GQ, Decider, the Daily Beast, and SportsAlcohol.com, where he also has a podcast. You can follow him as @rockmarooned on the social media.