Apple TV+ has released a new film by Doug Liman, "The Instigators." What makes this crime comedy charming — in our review.

According to the plot of the film "The Instigators," two sad men with ironically cheerful names, Cobby (Casey Affleck) and Rory (Matt Damon), agree to a heist conceived by a small-time Boston crime boss (actor Michael Stuhlbarg, strikingly resembling artist Semyon Strugachev).

Neither of them will have another chance to get a lot of money at once. Rory works in manufacturing and owes a large sum in child support to his son. If you were to describe his current life in two words, the old internet meme about a sad man in a cat costume who "no longer believes in anything and expects nothing" would fit perfectly. Rory sees a psychologist (Hong Chau) through a program for former Marines, but it doesn't bring much results, and he grows dimmer.

Cobby is a slightly less sad man, temporarily (meaning permanently) unemployed and constantly tricking his motorcycle's alcohol lock with the help of random passersby. But unlike Rory, Cobby still hopes for something, and a caustic, sarcastic view of everything around him helps him maintain relatively healthy optimism.

The heist plan is as simple and reliable as a Swiss watch: on the eve of the mayoral election (textured), clean out his safe containing a large sum of kickbacks, bribes, etc. After brief exchanges about each person's share and a little preparation in the style of a GTA V heist, the newfound friends set out to execute their plan. However, an unexpected mishap occurs. The incumbent mayor loses to a younger, more promising Democratic candidate, and no one deposits anything into that safe. Everything goes off the rails immediately. Shots are fired, victims appear, and now the entire Boston police force and local gangsters are chasing Cobby and Rory.

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Doug Liman is a well-known director of action films, including the cult classic "The Bourne Identity" with the same Damon in the lead role, the well-known "Edge of Tomorrow" with Tom Cruise, and smaller hits like "Lockdown" or the recent remake of an 80s classic. And if Liman has already perfected spectacular action scenes in his films, in "The Instigators" he decided to show himself in a slightly different range: lyrical, sentimental, and even comedic. "The Instigators" confidently takes a place somewhere between "The Sopranos" and Steven Soderbergh's "Logan Lucky."

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From the former, there's the mandatory psychotherapist who is not content with just seeing clients in the office. Liman goes further. Hong Chau's character is braver and more professional than Lorraine Bracco's character, so she promptly sets off after the unlucky robbers, providing both medical and psychological help along the way. In short, a faithful squire with a Harvard degree in psychotherapy. Don Quixote could only dream of such a thing.

From "Logan Lucky" come the absurd and funny situations that ordinary men from the shabby, cold, and unfriendly streets of Boston find themselves in, who have never done heists before but desperately want to break out of the vicious cycle of perpetual money problems.

These are small but significant dotted lines outlining Liman's ability not only to strictly adhere to his signature style and maintain form (a couple of decent action scenes are, of course, present here). For him, content is equally important — almost imperceptible but charming details like Rory diligently writing down the heist plan in a notebook or Cobby touchingly recalling his childhood at the moment he gets wounded. The ensemble of Damon and Affleck's characters, their good-natured bickering and idle chatter in the most crucial scenes — this is the heart of the film, which does not shine with particular plot originality.

Here, one can unabashedly aim for the title of best on-screen duo of the past year, because the main effect of the film "The Instigators" lies in the fact that you want to watch its sad but charming characters a little longer than the allotted hour and a half. That was Liman's cunning plan, knowing where to apply the right pressure. After all, Cobby and Rory are not running from the police or gangsters. They are running from the life on which both have long since placed a big cross. There is, apparently, something personal from the director in this, showing that a story about male sorrow and dreary loneliness can turn into a paradoxically sweet and funny film.

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