Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005): In Love with a Broken Heart

Beth and Michelle unravel Shane Black’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a darkly funny detective story filled with unreliable memories, mangled fingers, inconvenient corpses, overlapping mysteries, and the rapid-fire chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer. Recorded in honor of Kilmer, the conversation celebrates Gay Perry as a rare action-film lead whose sexuality is part of his character without becoming his entire personality. Beneath the elaborate mystery, Beth and Michelle find three damaged people searching for their own forms of redemption. Harry keeps moving forward no matter how thoroughly life knocks him down, Harmony tries to make peace with the sister she could not protect, and Perry slowly allows friendship to break through his carefully maintained cynicism. The film may be told through Harry’s unreliable narration, but its emotional story belongs to all three of them. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang fails the Castellini Test because Harmony is the only named woman given substantial dialogue, and the ending largely forgets to tell listeners where her life goes next. She remains essential to the mystery, however, and Beth and Michelle agree that the story would collapse without her intelligence, history, and determination to uncover the truth. *This dark comedy includes some overtures of SA and incest so please be aware.