Directed By Dito Montiel

Starring – Ed Harris, Pete Davidson, Bill Murray

The Plot – Vincent (Harris) is an ex-criminal who more than anything, just wants a normal, peaceful life. He and his wife Sandy (Gabrielle Union) have built a loving family with their son DJ (Miles J. Harvey) and are spending the winter break in a cabin before he goes off to college. Chaos ensues when Vincent’s disowned son Rocco (Lewis Pullman), his girlfriend Marina (Emanuela Postacchini) and Vincent’s ex-wife Ruth (Jennifer Coolidge) abruptly show up to spoil the festivities with an ominous warning: the famed gangsters Leftie (Murray) and Lonnie (Davidson) are coming for them.

Rated R for some strong violence, pervasive language, sexual content/nudity and some drug use.

Riff Raff (2025) Official Trailer – Jennifer Coolidge, Gabrielle Union, Pete Davidson, Bill Murray

POSITIVES

Dysfunctional families typically cater so well to dark humor direction because the characters don’t abide by the same rules and restrictions as those with a moral compass, and in “Riff Raff”, versatile director Dito Montiel services his gifted ensemble as the blade that continuously slashes through expectations, for a movie with no difficulty in always keeping its audience guessing, throughout the engagement. This is undoubtedly a film made better by the presence and prestige of its performances, particularly with Murray and Davidson playing so dramatically against type that they emotionally lose themselves in the roles. That’s not to say that they don’t play with the movie’s humor, as I think the comedy works best when the movie focuses on their unique dynamic, but when the means of their mission becomes apparent to the audience, and they finally catch up to their prey, the comedy quickly goes out the window, leaving Murray and Davidson to tap seamlessly into the dark sides of their demeanors, which made the third act climax the single most valuable part of the film, at least for my money. Miles J. Harvey also maintains perfection among comedic timing that made him difficult to look away from, especially when he’s typically reduced to background noise for characters discussing something urgent. While I didn’t laugh a whole lot throughout the film, the moments I did were during Harvey’s uncomfortably spontaneous responses to situations so unfamiliar to him, and in an ensemble with limitless experience, he holds his own against a murderer’s row of dazzling oppositions. Beyond the performances, I found most of the pay-offs to the established mysteries in the movie to be ideally rewarding, even if the sloppy structure left more to be desired with the value of importance of the current timeline within the movie. The biggest of these is definitely saved for the aforementioned third act, with such a ground-shaking twist during the final fifteen minutes that finally produced some compelling drama in the movie’s favor. Most of these twists don’t have significant impacts to the questions asked from them, but they each have a cunningly unapologetic way of resorting back to where the conversation started in the first place, and the results offer the single biggest insights and observations about these characters, in order to show you how they got to where and who they are when we meet them at the film’s beginning. If this isn’t enough, Montiel’s direction cooks some artistic flare into the visual fabric of the engagement, with vividly intoxicating transitional impulses and editing that conjure another highly creative way of making so many of these pocketed recollections from characters feel so personally unearthed. Sometimes, it results in these slow-pan movements closer to the scene’s narrator, in order to zero in on what they’re discussing, but others involve these sharply contrasting deviations out of the story, in order to capture a character’s reaction, and the result gives the movie’s imagery this independent cinema style appeal of timelessness to the interpretation that proves attention and detail went into even the most overlooked aspects of its appeal, proving this to be far from a film that Montiel slept through.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, I found myself more conflicted than entertained by “Riff Raff”, as a result of some creative decisions with the foundation of the storytelling that continuously tested my patience for a majority of the film’s 98-minute runtime. The biggest detractor of these is in the aforementioned various flashbacks that halt the plot progress directly in its tracks, resulting in these 5-10 minute ventures that try to answer even the most trivial of questions asked by characters, to what should otherwise be reserved for single lines of dialogue. That’s not to say that I’m prejudice against flashbacks in movies, as sparingly they can be used to flesh out a deep character and conflict significance, it’s just that here the gimmick feels like overkill by the film’s midway point, and because we spend so much time in the past actions of these characters, it leaves the present, where we spend a majority of our time, feel so insignificant to the movie’s importance, making so much of this movie’s structure feel compromisingly choppy, particularly during a first half that feels like it builds very little alongside this inevitable confrontation. In addition to this, the film’s various pocketed dynamics between its ensemble clashes uncompromisingly with the consistency of its tone, making certain sections of the storytelling feel improper when compared to the sum of their parts. The biggest detractor of these is unfortunately the sweetly sentimental side of DJ’s arc, which feels forced and improper when run alongside Rocco’s or Ruth’s, with its degrading impulses towards oral sex or tits talk, which feels written from an attention-seeking adolescent. For my money, the only arc that fits seamlessly into the tone of this movie is Murray and Davidson’s, but unfortunately the movie spends the least amount of time with their characters, and it sacrifices urgency in the plot device as a result, leaving its tone feeling strained out from a vicious tug-of-war between the two sides of its material, which often never feel suited for the same film. The script’s comedy is also nothing special, opting for more of the shock humor variety than cleverly ironic setups that wouldn’t force these cherished actors to work overtime on effort, in order to effectively sell their deliveries. Being a huge fan of dark or twisted humor, my lack of long-winded laughs here shows a major internal disconnect between the direction and the script, and considering Montiel’s filmography is reserved for more dramatic or intense offerings, it’s no surprise that he lacks the kind of influence on how to dress them up accordingly for the camera, leaving these gaps of audible silence for scenes that demand the punch of an audience response to dialogue so cloaked in humorous dependency. Finally, while I can certainly understand the intention with an ending that points out the flaws in all of our family ideals that draws us together, I truly didn’t buy the ending for these characters, especially after that last big twist unloads mass destruction upon this family. It’s a scene that feels so contradictory to everything established previously to it that it feels like a vivid fantasy in the mind of one particular character, and it sends this film and its all-time high for momentum out on such a flat disappointment that reaches for neat and tidy, instead of the tumultuous foundation that it spent an entire movie building towards.

OVERALL
“Riff Raff” wastes away a radiantly charismatic ensemble and unapologetically upfront atmosphere, as a result of a choppily dejecting screenplay and flat comedic impact that make this family gathering every bit as tedious and life-sucking as the ones we’re used to. While Dito Montiel has grown tremendously as a director from his days of helming psychologically sincere drama’s, his inexperience for comedy shows during the film’s most defining moments, summarizing an average dark comedy that crashes on dysfunction.

My Grade: 5.6 or D+