Tag Archives: bill-murray

The Friend

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June 21

The second film of the June Swoon today was one I rented off Fandango at Home and I rented it because they had Bill Murray on the cover and had a decent Rotten Tomatoes score. We are under ten days now left in the June Swoon and the 2025 movies have been tough to find to watch.

According to IMDB, “Novelist and creative writing teacher Iris (Naomi Watts) finds her comfortable, solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor (Bill Murray) commits suicide and bequeaths his beloved Great Dane to her. The regal yet intractable beast, named Apollo, immediately creates problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones, his looming presence constantly reminding her of her friend’s choice to take his own life. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding to the animal, she begins to come to terms with her past, her lost friend, and her own creative inner life.“

I had no idea what this movie was about. I did not know that this was going to be a story about a girl and her dog. I’ve never been a big fan of dog movies that try to tug on the heartstrings. However, this added more to the story than just the dog. The story of Walter (Bill Murray) having committed suicide and how that affected the people around him was very interesting for me.

Naomi Watts is always great. There could have been more Bill Murray for my tastes, but I understand why that is the case with the story.

I am not a dog person, but this was a nice film. I liked the balance between the guilt and sadness of one aspect of the story and the bonding between a very charismatic dog and a human.

3 stars

Riff Raff

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I had a chance to rent Riff Raff . I had seen the film in the theaters, but I was unable to fit a viewing into the schedule and I was interested in it because of the cast. So when it became available on Vudu, I was excited at the chance to watch it.

The cast was extremely strong, featuring Ed Harris, Jennifer Coolidge, Bill Murray, Gabrielle Union, Pete Davidson, Lewis Pullman, Miles J. Harvey and Emanuela Postacchini.

Vincent (Ed Harris) was a former criminal who escaped from the life and found a new one with a new wife Sandy (Gabrielle Union) and her son from another marriage, DJ (Miles J. Harvey). DJ was preparing to go to college when Vincent’s other son Rocco (Lewis Pullman) and his pregnant girlfriend Marina (Emanuela Postacchini) showed up unexpectedly, with Rocco’s mother and Vincent’s first wife, Ruth (Jennifer Coolidge) unconscious and in tow. Rocco has got a problem that threatened everybody’s happiness.

This film is a dark comedy in the vein of Fargo, but I do not think the comedic element is exactly strong. I did enjoy the separate characters and their stories that the film develops. Some might claim the film is slow, but I thought the development of these people were one of the strengths of the movie.

I love Jennifer Coolidge. I have been introduced to her work recently with The White Lotus and I enjoyed the character she was playing here.

Without spoiling things, I think the ending of this both worked and had several flaws to it. Most of what happened worked well for me, but there were some questions I had about how things happened and why things happened that did take away from it, in my opinion. I can’t go into too many details without spoiling it, but let’s just say that it did not leave me with the satisfied feeling I expected.

The strength of the cast pulled this up and I was engaged with the story as it developed. I wish there was another ten minutes at the end to make some things that happen make more sense than they did.

3.3 stars