On The Rocks (2020, Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray's latest)

[Small Man Big Horse]

Sofia Coppola reunites with Bill Murray in this dry, dull comedy where Laura (Rashida Jones) starts to have concerns that her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) might be cheating on her, partially as he's away on business trips all the time, including on her birthday. Her father Felix (Murray) had cheated a lot on Laura's mother and he encourages Laura's suspicions, and the two spend a lot of time investigating the matter, though most of the time it's just them sitting around talking nonsense. The problem is that Murray's a bit of a smug know it all, and though he and Laura have various conversations about the nature of men and women, relationships, fidelity, desire and sex, none of them are particularly illuminating or anything you won't have heard before in films far, far better than this. Coppola photographs her locations beautifully and the performances are decent enough, with Jenny Slate popping up as a self-obsessed friend and getting the best lines, but it's let down by a very tepid script, one that doesn't offer up anything that original or interesting and this ultimately feels pretty pointless. 4.4/10

[dissolute ocelot]

Is this an Apple TV exclusive? It seems to have been in cinemas briefly should you want some covids. I'm not sure what the point of putting it on some niche streaming service is, nobody's going to get Apple TV just to watch this. Or will it appear on the usual pay-to-watch as well? (And yes its distribution may well be more interesting than the film from what I've heard.)

(I love some of Sofia Coppola's work, but she's equally capable of being awful as in The Beguiled which I thought was terrible unless you're a fan of shit accents and people being shitty very slowly. So I'll give this a miss.)

[Crabwalk]

Saw it at the cinema last week and said out loud 'oh fuck off' when the credits started to roll. SMBH nails it above.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Is this an Apple TV exclusive? It seems to have been in cinemas briefly should you want some covids. I'm not sure what the point of putting it on some niche streaming service is, nobody's going to get Apple TV just to watch this. Or will it appear on the usual pay-to-watch as well? (And yes its distribution may well be more interesting than the film from what I've heard.)

(I love some of Sofia Coppola's work, but she's equally capable of being awful as in The Beguiled which I thought was terrible unless you're a fan of shit accents and people being shitty very slowly. So I'll give this a miss.)

It is an Apple Tv exclusive, yeah, and I don't think there's any other way to watch it bar torrenting.

Saw it at the cinema last week and said out loud 'oh fuck off' when the credits started to roll. SMBH nails it above.

Ha, I swore when the credits rolled too, I've read a few really positive reviews which go on about how incredibly charming Bill Murray is but I found the character a right egotistical arse most of the time, and thought that was the point of the film.

[Shit Good Nose]

I'm one of those that absolutely hated - HATED - Lost In Translation (I seem to recall it actually made me angry), and haven't like anything else of hers I've seen either (The Beguiled is an affront to Don Siegel's, The Bling Ring felt like it was made by a YouTuber, Somewhere looks like a TV movie, and the idea of The Virgin Suicides - which I watched again recently having not seen it since it came originally came out - is much better than the resulting film.  I've not seen Marie Antoinette or La Traviata).  Very much an Emperor's New Clothes in my opinion.

I shall almost certainly be steering well clear of this.

[bgmnts]

Just can't get enough films about middle class angst and relationships. Don't think I'll ever get bored of it.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Is this an Apple TV exclusive? It seems to have been in cinemas briefly should you want some covids. I'm not sure what the point of putting it on some niche streaming service is, nobody's going to get Apple TV just to watch this. Or will it appear on the usual pay-to-watch as well? (And yes its distribution may well be more interesting than the film from what I've heard.)

(I love some of Sofia Coppola's work, but she's equally capable of being awful as in The Beguiled which I thought was terrible unless you're a fan of shit accents and people being shitty very slowly. So I'll give this a miss.)

Myth: Movie Piracy is wrong.
Fact: Apple are a big faceless corporation, which makes it okay!

[Crabwalk]

It is an Apple Tv exclusive, yeah, and I don't think there's any other way to watch it bar torrenting.

Ha, I swore when the credits rolled too, I've read a few really positive reviews which go on about how incredibly charming Bill Murray is but I found the character a right egotistical arse most of the time, and thought that was the point of the film.

I think he was supposed to initially charm us with his old-school rogue-ish ways and charisma. But from the first scene onwards I just thought he was an insufferably smug and toxic cunt.

Chuffed for Rashida Jones that she got the payoff of

Spoiler alert

an obscenely expensive watch

[close]

. What a heartwarming way to emerge from an existential crisis.

This film is American Beauty for 'Live Laugh Love' mums..

[greenman]

Just can't get enough films about middle class angst and relationships. Don't think I'll ever get bored of it.

Although it tends to be much moreso the male perspective that's been done into the ground for decades, the main thing Lost in Translation had going for it beyond the visuals/soundtrack was Johansson wasn't just a quirky cliche for the male lead to chase.

[chveik]

I think he was supposed to initially charm us with his old-school rogue-ish ways and charisma. But from the first scene onwards I just thought he was an insufferably smug and toxic cunt.

Bill Murray in every role...

I quite like Somewhere tbh

[gilbertharding]

I must admit that I liked Lost in Translation at the time. Beguiled by the My Bloody Valentine soundtrack, and the loving, lingering shots of Scarlettt Johansen's bottom.

Safe to say the years spent at the re-education centre were not wasted, I won't be watching this new thing (not leary because Apple is a disease.

[amputeeporn]

Sad to hear this is shit. I unashamedly love Lost in Translation. Feel like people saying the characters are too privileged/that they don't interact with Japanese culture are asking for a different thing altogether.

It's about a film star and a photographer's wife staying in literally the most expensive hotel in Tokyo - it's about that weird insulation that rich westerners have in foreign climes and the strange relationships that emerge. It chimes with my (much lower rent) travels there as a writer, but even if it doesn't, so what? Same goes for Somewhere - what's wrong with an art film about someone ultra wealthy whose problems are largely ennui? Fair enough if people just hate it, but the emerging consensus that it's somehow ideologically problematic misses the point of cinema imo. I want personal visions that are by necessity exclusionary, and I certainly don't want or need to like the characters.

Edit to add: from the trailer, it seems like she came up with the title of this film and then reverse-engineered the plot accordingly...

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Switched it off after 45 minutes, I was so bored and annoyed. Bill Murray and Rashida Jones, charming actors both, but fucking hell, what a turgid film.

[greenman]

Sad to hear this is shit. I unashamedly love Lost in Translation. Feel like people saying the characters are too privileged/that they don't interact with Japanese culture are asking for a different thing altogether.

It's about a film star and a photographer's wife staying in literally the most expensive hotel in Tokyo - it's about that weird insulation that rich westerners have in foreign climes and the strange relationships that emerge. It chimes with my (much lower rent) travels there as a writer, but even if it doesn't, so what? Same goes for Somewhere - what's wrong with an art film about someone ultra wealthy whose problems are largely ennui? Fair enough if people just hate it, but the emerging consensus that it's somehow ideologically problematic misses the point of cinema imo. I want personal visions that are by necessity exclusionary, and I certainly don't want or need to like the characters.

Edit to add: from the trailer, it seems like she came up with the title of this film and then reverse-engineered the plot accordingly...

Watching it again a couple of months ago I still enjoyed it but found it a bit more uneven. The general ennui side of it I think holds up pretty well but the Japanese quirkiness and negative view of mainstream Hollywood seems rather more broad and clichéd.

[Icehaven]

I haven't seen it but it sounds a bit like Coppola's trying to invoke memories of Lost In Translation by having Bill Murray and a young woman wandering round having heart to hearts, only there's no way a romantic dynamic between such disparate ages would fly now so they're father and daughter instead. 

[thecuriousorange]

This being compared to Woody Allen films in a lot of headlines.

[Shaky]

I haven't seen it but it sounds a bit like Coppola's trying to invoke memories of Lost In Translation by having Bill Murray and a young woman wandering round having heart to hearts, only there's no way a romantic dynamic between such disparate ages would fly now so they're father and daughter instead.

Yeah, it's leaning so heavily on that I wonder if it can only be a disappointment. A spiritual sequel a la Fierce Creatures, almost.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

This being compared to Woody Allen films in a lot of headlines.

It's a fair comparison, as the 45 minutes I watched were exactly like every shit film Woody Allen has made since he ran out of ideas in the mid-1990s. 

[Dropshadow]

I've always defended Sofia Coppola from those who say she was shite in the Godfather, but she's went too far with this garbage. Bill Murray's supposed to be funny, not a smug old celeb now way past his sell-by date sleepwalking through a role. And why do American parents in these kinds of films always talk at their brats as if they're terminally-ill housepets? Brat shows "Mawhm" crudely drawn picture, Mawhm (and De-yaad if he's nearby) say "Oh that's Greeaat!" after which the brat squirms and bleats like a I-don't-know-what. 0.2 out of 10.