‘Riff Raff’ (2024)

Overlapping families, hot pursuit and deep, dark hidden secrets, ‘Riff Raff’ promises a lot on paper. What it delivers is an overly verbose talkie that rambles for the most part, even with a stacked cast that are more than capable of shining in their own right.

The film opens on Vincent (Ed Harris), a retired gun for hire that has turned all of his attention to being a family man. Sharing his life with new wife Sandy (Gabrielle Union) and her naïve teenage son DJ (Miles J. Harvey) the trio have decided to spend New Year’s at their remote cabin in the woods.

Barging in on them one night is Vincent’s washed out son Rocco (Lewis Pullman), his very pregnant girlfriend Marina (Emanuela Postacchini) and Vincent’s ex-wife Ruth (Jennifer Coolidge). Showing up uninvited and with no explanation besides wanting to spend quality time together, Vincent, Sandy and DJ all have their suspicions on why they’ve showed up.

At the same time Leftie (Bill Murray) and Lonnie (Pete Davidson) make their way through the sticks, tracking Rocco. As it turns out, Rocco had killed Leftie’s son Johnnie (Michael Angelo Covino) and is on the war path, seeking retribution.

Stacked with an unbelievable cast, ‘Riff Raff’ often feels wasteful, underusing the full star power and talent at its disposal. Ed Harris leads the intro with Miles J. Harvey alongside him, in an amicable yet cautious father-son duo. The two feel well lived in, yet somewhat distant. Even with friendly banter, the tone never quite lands between the two and they remain somewhat alien with one another.

The most notable shortcoming of the feature is its lack of character motivation. For the most part, each player is roped into the stream of happenings and just sort of has to play along until the final showdown takes place. Each character feels like a one-dimensional and underdeveloped placeholder, aimless and without any clear goals.

A stand-out, Jennifer Coolidge’s offbeat and salty Ruth is yanked along unwillingly in Rocco’s plan to flee from Leftie. Once at the cabin, apparently unfazed by the vendetta Leftie wants to enact on Rocco, she re-focuses her attention on trying to rekindle a long-forgotten romance with Harris’ Vincent.

In turn, Vincent’s actions remain suspect as it is uncovered that years ago, he had visited DJ’s father. In an attempt to scare the man straight, Vincent had accidentally killed him. Inexplicably inserting himself in DJ’s father’s stead, Vincent had decided to start a new life with Sandy, abandoning Ruth and Rocco.

Save for the unclear motivations, the film serves up a sort of gangster film that only contains the most tedious parts imaginable in a criminal thriller. Serving up a lot of pointless dialogue, maybe the creators of the film were trying to deliver a more humorous and absurd thriller. With an uneven tone and some misplaced comedic beats, the film instead delivers a disjointed and inconsequential snooze fest.

Most tragically, the story concludes on everyone, besides Leftie and Lonnie, surviving, making one realize that no one had really taken on the helm of protagonist and was not really worth rooting for in the first place, delivering a further disappointment after the credits begin to roll.

Stifled by the meandering narrative and tortuous dialogue, the cast of the film suffer a long and fruitless story. Shuffling along the misadventure, little is done by way of some grand statement about family, loyalty or justice, rather opting to gesture towards the aforementioned virtues, letting the sentiment dissipate without ever really addressing anything in particular. Empty platitudes and unfunny jokes land this feature in an undesirable position, best forgotten immediately after viewing.

Score: 1/4