Review of the movie "Riff Raff"

This week, the crime comedy “Riff Raff” was released in theaters. It brought together Stifler’s mother, Jennifer Coolidge, venerable veterans Bill Murray and Ed Harris, one of the most recent disturbers of the peace in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Lewis Pullman, and comedian and actor Pete Davidson. Davidson has recently appeared on screens with enviable regularity. Whether the criminal adventures of all this good company are worthy of the audience’s attention is discussed in the review.

“Riff Raff”

Genre crime comedy
Director Dito Montiel
Starring Jennifer Coolidge, Ed Harris, Gabriel Union, Pete Davidson, Lewis Pullman, Bill Murray, Emanuela Postacchini, Miles J. Harvey, P.J. Byrne, Michael Angelo Covino
Premiere movie theaters
Year of release 2025
Website IMDb

On the eve of the Christmas and New Year holidays, contractor Vincent Gauthier, along with his much younger wife Sandy and son DJ, spend time in a remote country house nestled in the beautiful Maine woods (not only King to have fun there). One day, right in the middle of the night, they are suddenly visited by Vincent’s ex-wife Ruth, their adult son Rocco and his pregnant girlfriend Marina. It’s obvious that something bad has happened and they are hiding from some kind of trouble. So this year’s merry celebration with the family is probably canceled.

The first thing that catches your eye even before watching the movie is, of course, the strength of the cast – just mention the names of Bill Murray and Ed Harris. And this is despite the fact that the director, Dito Montiel, is far from being the greatest filmmaker of our time, and his budget was a very modest $16 million. It was hardly worth expecting anything more from experienced performers than pleasant retirement appearances. In principle, that’s what happened — the veterans performed purely because of their experience, but this is clearly not the biggest problem with the film.

The trouble is that what is happening on the screen is no more believable than Santa Claus. At the most dramatic, climactic moments, the viewer is presented with a theatrical production — with dialogues, monologues, drama, etc. It’s a pity that good actors have to act out scenes from a school play somewhere — in such strange and implausible circumstances the screenwriter John Pollono places his characters. He is also not the most famous name in Hollywood, by the way.

Occasionally, comedic wisecracks pop up on the screen, but they’re not much fun against the backdrop of violent scenes, such as the one where Bill Murray’s character blows the brains out of an ordinary shop assistant. Jennifer Coolidge’s usual energy doesn’t help the situation either, as the charismatic woman she plays is not averse to drinking, smoking, and having fun in the middle of the woods with her ex-husband. As if the spirit of Stifler’s mother is somewhere in the air.

The story is not affected by the New Year’s theme either: there is a Christmas tree in the corner of the house, Ed Harris lights a modest pyrotechnic in one scene, and that’s the end of the festive spirit. Even the local surroundings offer frankly autumnal landscapes that are not at all associated with anything New Year’s. That is to say, “Riff Raff” is definitely not one of those seasonal films like some “Violent Night” (2022), which is worth watching in a special winter. Perhaps that’s why the distributor Festivals Cinema decided not to delay and release the film in the middle of the fall.

Formally, the narrative is told from the point of view of Miles J. Harvey’s character, Vincent’s adopted son and one of the least interesting characters in the movie. This maneuver, again, has absolutely no effect on anything. The appearance of neighbors who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time will be better than the arch of a foolish narrator who can’t even light a grill.

In more skillful hands, such a cast could have been used to much greater advantage, but in this case we got an extremely mediocre movie that is very difficult to recommend for viewing. Especially when a new Paul Thomas Anderson movie is playing in the next theater. The only thing worth noting is that Bill Murray was not too lazy to play death no less dramatically than in “Zombieland” (2009), where, by the way, violence and humor were combined much more harmoniously.