In 2006 writer-director Dito Montiel broke out with the autobiographical “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints,” ushering in a raw new voice. Inspired by his rough childhood growing up in Astoria, the film‘s detailed world building and lived-in characters brought a veracity to the well-worn crime-drama genre. Somehow, two decades and half a dozen films later, everything that made his debut film feel fresh has now curdled like bad milk with his latest pitch black comedy “Riff Raff.”
While Montiel is still a great “actors director,” eliciting grounded, and at times wonderfully mordant, performances from his stacked ensemble cast, the script from John Pollono has stranded them in a film that plays like a copy of a copy of a copy of several better films. One scene is even underscored with music that evokes Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours.” If you’re going to rip something off so blatantly, it’s probably wise not to steal from something so iconic.
The film begins at an isolated cabin where teenager DJ (Miles J. Harvey) holds his step-father Vincent (Ed Harris, repeating many of the same physical beats as his character in “Love Lies Bleeding,” but if he were on Xanax) at gunpoint. Via voiceover, DJ tells us that he was supposed to start as a freshman at Dartmouth soon, but that, if he starts at the beginning of the story, why he’s now holding this gun will all make sense. The story then cuts to the past, where his step-brother Rocco (Lewis Pullman, doing his best to add layers to a one-note character) flees a violent scene with his very pregnant girlfriend Marina (Emanuela Postacchini). The two are being pursued by gangsters Leftie (Bill Murray, with a great Boston accent, but operating largely on autopilot) and Lonny (Pete Davidson). The lovers on the run eventually make it up to Maine where DJ, his stepfather, and his mother Sandy (Gabrielle Union) have come to celebrate New Years. They’ve also brought Rocco’s horny and abrasive mother Ruth (Jennifer Coolidge) along for the ride, drugging and gaslighting her about why she’s there before the truth comes to light.
The rest of the film cross-cuts between a comedy of manners for this estranged blended family and a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-style comedy between Leftie and Lonny as they make their way up the coast, and gaudy, frenetic flashbacks that fill in expositional details. The aim of this structure is to ramp up dramatic tension, but the result is mostly frustration as everyone and everything about them becomes more and more unpleasant. The holiday setting is also largely underutilized, as if the only reason to set it at New Year’s was to save money lighting the set with Christmas trees.
The balance between abject violence and broad humor only works because of the comic prowess of the cast — with Coolidge, of course, the true standout. It’s a shame then that her character is so poorly developed that without Coolidge’s signature wit Ruth would just be a pile of clichés stacked up in a leopard print coat with teased up hair. Union’s Sandy is equally underdeveloped, although a half-assed flashback revealing the classicist bigotry of her parents when she introduced them to Vincent attempts to add layers. The worst is pregnant Marina, who is a stereotypical Italian girl who loves babies, cooking when she’s nervous, and doesn’t seem to have a single thought or dream of her own. Instead she’s always mothering DJ or discussing the concept of “the one” as if all life’s choices are rooted in finding and keeping that person, no matter the cost.
Surprisingly, Michael Covino as Johnny, Leftie’s son whose death is the catalyst for the whole sordid affair, is afforded the most complexity, with a truly tragic streak layered into his toxic masculinity. Covino is also tasked with the least comedic role and excels at imbuing his character with enough nuance to be the one actor who transcends the script’s stereotyped trappings. It’s unfortunate, then, that he’s also got the least amount of screentime.
That is, except for P.J. Byrne and Brooke Dillman as a couple of nosy neighbors, who manage to steal a whole scene out from under Murray and Davidson. Since his breakout in “Babylon,” Byrne has shown himself to be a stellar character actor and one whose presence adds a dash of color to any project he’s in. Their scene also acts as one of the few moments where the film actually attempts to comment on the class distinction it sets up between Vincent’s new life with Sandy and his old life with Ruth. Yet, like almost everything in the film, this thread is largely unexplored, left dangling haphazardly in the wind.
DJ’s narration is inconsistently deployed and fails to truly root the film in his perspective, adding to its incoherent tone and overall sloppy execution. His final monologue attempts to paint the whole film as a parable about messy families. But really, the only thing the film’s bloody finale accomplishes is illustrate just how violent, literally, the concept of “the one” is. In fact it works so well as a punchline, it makes it even more bizarre that the filmmakers didn’t bother to find a better way to set up the deconstruction of that concept earlier in their film.
Despite game performances from its ensemble cast, “Riff Raff” is a misfire that should probably just be thrown out as so much trash.
Grade: C-
“Riff Raff” world premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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