15 Best Original Movie Characters Of 2016

Ryan Gosling is a truly underrated performer. Perhaps the most attractive man in the universe (by general consensus) he is also a supremely gifted character actor and physical comedian, rarely given an opportunity to show these sides of his talent. However, in The Nice Guys, he is given free reign to go nuts with these attributes and more, creating Holland March, the most immediately memorable cinematic detective since J.J. Gittes in Chinatown.

And I do not make the comparison to Chinatown lightly - early in the film, March hilariously cuts himself on a piece of glass and spends the rest of the film with his hand in a cast. Visual homage to J.J. Gittes' sliced up nose aside, the cast is a constant reminder of March's incompetence as a detective. He tries so hard to provide for his daughter Holly, but keeps failing in spectacularly simple ways. Throughout the course of the investigation, most of his early successes are by accident - for instance, it is only by getting absurdly drunk and falling off a balcony that he discovers a key piece of evidence.

Holland March is like what would happen if every cliché detective trope was taken to its logical extreme. Hard drinking P.I.? This man has a debilitating drinking problem! Always ready for the worst? This man brandishes a revolver when he's sitting on the toilet! And because of this, his victories (great and small) feel more special than your average action movie hero.