When Rocco (played by Lewis Pullman) kills his old friend Jonathan (Michael Covino) in defense of his pregnant girlfriend Marina (Emanuela Postachhini), the couple immediately goes on the run. Seeking safe harbor, Rocco takes Marina to his estranged dad’s cabin in the woods at 4:00am where Vincent (Ed Harris), his wife Sandy (Gabrielle Union) and their son DJ (Miles J. Harvey) are staying for the New Years. It turns out they’re on the run because Jonathan was the son of Leftie (Bill Murray), a gangster who’s no stranger to killing, and he will stop at nothing to exact a level of revenge for the departure of his only son. The unexpected middle-of-the-night visit brings all kinds of family drama and chaos with it proving that people’s pasts are not what everyone believes they are.
RIFF RAFF is classified as a comedy but, really, it’s two genres in one. Whenever the estranged family is on screen, it’s a crime mystery but when Murray and Pete Davidson grace us with their presence, it’s a dark comedy.
Murray, as always, is great. The delivery of every line is perfect, regardless of intent (innocent or sinister), and he leaves the audience wanting more. Davidson is surprisingly good and the chemistry between the two is stellar.
We often complain that films and TV shows don’t invest enough time into character development but this is the opposite. Almost too much emphasis is put on trying to flesh out these characters and the momentum really suffers early on because of it. So much so that we encourage you to see this in the theater so you’re all but guaranteed to be rewarded with the end. If you choose to stream it, you might turn it off before the big payoff.
Put another way, it’s a slow burn. Getting to know the characters definitely pays off in the finale but, when you go in expecting a comedy and there’s very few laughs in the first half of the film, you’re left wondering if you’ve missed something.
The performances are great, the humor is fun and the culmination of the story is extremely satisfying. RIFF RAFF is a fun movie… if you’re patient enough to get through it. Murray and Davidson alone make RIFF RAFF worthy of your attention. But go see it in a theater so you won’t have an excuse to get sidetracked or distracted.
JKG SCORE: 7.0
UNTITLED BONUS: Director Dito Montiel sat down with us to explain how RIFF RAFF came together, whether it’s intimidating to work with living legends like Bill Murray and how Pete Davidson reminded him of the late great John Cazale. WATCH –>
Untitled Film Project 