Daring Duos

Less than a minute has passed, in “The Nice Guys,” and the first guitar riff has barely begun, when the wah-wah pedal is applied. That, of course, is official confirmation that the movie takes place in the nineteen-seventies. So is the typography of the opening credits: soft curves and candy stripes, as seen in “Boogie Nights” (1997). Like that great film, “The Nice Guys” starts in Los Angeles, in 1977, though the chronology tends to swerve. Our heroes, Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) and Holland March (Ryan Gosling), pass a billboard for “Jaws 2,” which didn’t come out until the summer of 1978. And, at a rooftop party, a band plays “September,” by Earth, Wind & Fire, which was released even later. Still, we get the point: this is historical drama, dating from the groovacious period.