This summer the Coen Brothers’ ripoffs have been out in force including the August release of Greedy People and the Apple Original Films streaming attraction The Instigators. You might call these, and many others in recent years, Coens-light. But then again even the Coens themselves, or at least Ethan, has more recently tried to replicate their earlier success in this genre with the forgettable Drive-Away Dolls earlier this year. So all hail director Dito Montiel and screenwriter John Pollono for getting it right and reviving the genre in style with Riff Raff, world premiering today at the Toronto Film Festival.
With an outstanding, perfectly-chosen cast, this hilarious crime comedy hits all the right marks, a combination of No Country For Old Men and Grosse Point Blank, throw in a touch of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, season it with a bit of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, then cast it with the likes of Bill Murray, Pete Davidson, Jennifer Coolidge and Ed Harris among others and you have the recipe for a swell time at the movies.
Actually, Pollono, a playwright by trade, first produced this as a stage play and you can actually see how that would work, but opening it up for the cinema proves to be a natural and getting these actors together to play it is a gift for moviegoers who look for smart, somewhat violent, entertainment. It also happens to be laugh-out-loud funny in many parts.
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Ever been to a family reunion that turned out to be a nightmare? That is sort of what Riff Raff is at heart featuring a dysfunctional family with a checkered past — at least some of them. In a remote home on the East Coast somewhere in Massachusetts (the film was shot in New Jersey) we meet a young African American kid, D.J. (a terrific Miles J. Harvey), getting a shooting lesson from his stepfather Vincent (Harris). They live with Harris’ wife Sandy (Gabrielle Union) and seem happy in their blended familial way. Unexpectedly, Vincent’s son Rocco (Lewis Pullman) shows up with his pregnant girlfriend, Marina (Emanuela Postacchini), and a completely passed-out Ruth (Coolidge), Rocco’s mother who was once married to Vincent. They plop her on the couch and we later learn she was drugged. When she finally comes to it is just like old times, and she is horny as hell. Coolidge really hasn’t gotten to play this kind of character and, just as she did in White Lotus, she steals the picture.
As the plot unfolds we learn Rocco is on the run and it doesn’t take long to see the connection. Cut to a convenience store with customers Leftie (Murray) and dim-bulb associate Lonnie (Davidson) who are buying some snacks. Unfortunately for the clerk who refers mistakenly to Lonnie as Leftie’s son, it sets off trigger-happy Leftie who pops the guy in the head. He makes it clear Lonnie is not his son, but sadly reveals Jonathan is and as it turns out was murdered by none other than Rocco after Jonathan (Michael Angelo Covino in flashbacks), who used to date Marina, threatened his ex-girlfriend. Thus Leftie is out to pay back Rocco for taking away his only son. The problem is they have to find him and suspect he has gone back to Vincent’s suburban home, except Vincent and the family are really off in their other unregistered remote house where it would be impossible to find them. Rocco knows this.
BUT when Leftie and Lonnie arrive at the empty residence registered in Vincent’s name, two nosy neighbors, Janet (Brooke Dillman) and husband Garrison (P.J. Byrne), come calling with a plate of cookies and helpful advice as they assume they are relatives or friends of Vincent and family. This pair is really a piece of work but they also, cluelessly, provide Leftie and Lonnie with a neatly detailed map as to where their neighbors have gone. This whole encounter is knock-down-drag-out hilarious, with both Dillman and Byrne nailing the comic possibilities even as they are about to become victims themselves. “But I thought we weren’t supposed to kill anyone else,” Lonnie says. “This couple is a must kill,” says Leftie. It all gets more intense, tense, and still quite funny as all hell breaks loose and one by one this disconnected family find themselves in a fight for their lives.
Montiel (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) expertly steers all of this never letting the soufflé fall or the tone lose balance between the very funny and precise dialogue and crazy situation these characters all find themselves coming together in. Pollono’s adaptation of his own play has the snap, crackle and pop smarts of something well beyond average for this genre.
The acting could not be better. Coolidge is a riot as she inhabits this bit of a mess human being who nevertheless we root for. Harris plays it very stoically and commands our attention even before it is revealed he has a criminal past of his own with Leftie. Murray so good in another Toronto film here this week, The Friend, nails one of his best roles in years with complete authority splendidly working opposite Davidson who is a sort of Norton to his Ralph Kramden. The rest of the cast is equally fine.
Riff Raff is that unexpected gem that comes along ever so rarely now, a true original and one audiences are likely to eat up given half a chance to see it in theatres. Producers are Noah Rothman, Sarah Gabriel, Marc Goldberg and Adam Paulsen.
Title: Riff Raff
Festival: Toronto (Special Presentations)
Distributor: Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate
Director: Dito Montiel
Screenwriter: John Pollono
Cast: Jennifer Coolidge, Ed Harris, Gabrielle Union, Lewis Pullman, Miles J. Harvey, Emanuela Postacchini, Michael Angelo Covino, Pete Davidson, Bill Murray, Brooke Dillman, P.J. Byrne
Running time: 1 hr 43 min
