Baby boomers think at Riff Raff Probably first to the name of one of the main characters from the cult musical “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, while the Genz is probably particularly associated with the US rapper of the same name. Nevertheless, the term is by no means a more or less usual first name, but an English slang name for “rabble”. Or to put it with the Cambridge Dictionary a little more advantage and friendlier: “People with a bad reputation or from a lower social class.”
The word itself is probably ancient French origin and belongs to the group of suggestive, semi -rhyming alliterations in which the sound is at least as important as the content – and therefore it is also great as a film title, most recently for a workers' satire of Ken Loach (1991). Before that, there was already a romantic crime comedy with Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow as well as for a noir comedy from 1947, which came to the cinema with the slogan “Baby, this is about love and death”.
Gangster vs. gangster
Almost 80 years later, it's about love and death in “Riff Raff – crime is a family matter“. The focus is initially on a small family that just wants to celebrate New Year's Eve peacefully. For this purpose, pensioner Vincent (Ed Harris) and Ms. Sandy (Gabrielle Union) and a half -fabric son DJ (Miles J. Harvey) has withdrawn into his luxurious holiday home in the middle of the forest. But the idyll is suddenly disturbed when, surprisingly, Rocco (Lewis Pullman), his son from his first marriage, stands at the door. In tow, he has his heavily pregnant girlfriend Marina (Emanuela Postacchini) and his completely excited mother Ruth (Jennifer Coolidge), Vincent's ex-wife. It quickly becomes clear that the trio is on the run and needs help.
Vincent has once developed his prosperity as a gangster, and his son still runs in these circles. Unfortunately, to protect Marina, Rocco killed the son of the gangster boss Lefty (Bill Murray), who now wants to take revenge. Together with his loyal companion Lonnie (Pete Davidson), who for him – very much! – Taking over the killing, he was attached to Roccos heels. Vincent is the only one who can still help the three persecutors. But with that he brings himself to fatal danger. Because it is almost certain that Lefty and Lonnie will succeed in tracking down the lonely holiday home in the forests. And then Vincent, Sandy and DJ would probably also be on …
Gangsterbosses Lefty (Bill Murray) leaves his henchman Lonnie (Pete Davidson) the bloody dirty work.
Dito Montiel, a rather unknown US indie director with a dazzling past as a hardcore punker, model and author, stages his family thriller comedy with a light hand and pronounced talent for authentic dialogues, which include numerous strength expressions but also some pretty oneliners. What is told here in numerous flashbacks and from the first-person perspective of the young DJ as exciting as mostly, at times even reminds of the big gangster comedies of the 1990s such as “The usual suspects”, “Get Shorty” or “Pulp Fiction”. This applies above all to the rabid humor and the tricky action with many references and details. However, everything stays one size smaller here – and thus, so to speak, in the family.
The Vincent, his lovable wife and the teenager DJ as a prosperous citizen, face three people from another world: Rocco, the sensitive small gangster, his great love of Marina, a mafia subsidiary, and Rocco's mother Ruth, an old saddle pad that runs on the day and night and is embarrassing in men. “American Pie” cult Milf Jennifer Coolidge plays with a bear-like charm, the prime example of a tapped gangster bride-and she actually succeeds in making Ruth likeable because at the same time it is ordinary, authentic, lovable and, above all, incredibly funny. Ruth is uninhibited the now purified and married Vincent. She even grabs him with the words: “You can't leave something hard.” She makes her ridiculous, but she doesn't care – Jennifer Coolidge is the real star of the film and shows her two older colleagues where the hammer hangs. And they have to make really efforts to assert themselves against this acting event.
Vincent (Ed Harris) actually sworn off gangster life …
Ed Harris (“Top Gun 2”) plays Ruth's ex-man Vincent as a gnarled, initially clarified family man who no longer wants to hear from his past. But he has to find out that there is no escape – neither before his previous life nor before his own family. His opponent, also in relation to the practically motionless facial expressions, which in both men can almost be described as a facial paralysis, is Lefty, and Bill Murray (“Ghostbusters”) is playing, which can finally be really funny here again. And this concerns his entire appearance, in which threat and comedy are a less ominous Union.
In the meantime, Bill Murray plays his role as a ripped off professional. On the one hand, the fact that the crazy Lonnie decreases the dirty work is a welcome relief for him, but on the other hand a real challenge, because Lonnie is – to say it very clearly – stupidly. But killing is not celebrated here, for Lefty it is part of a work that must necessarily be done, if possible by someone like Lonnie, who actually likes to promote someone out of life. Pete Davidson (“Bodies Bodies Bodies”) plays Lonnie as a psychopath with a crazy look. His crazyness makes him unpredictable, but also ensures hope: maybe he is doing something wrong, and the nicer gangsters are allowed to survive …
Conclusion: pretty fucking Well, if not fucking brilliant! Despite the constant curse, the comedy hangs a little too much in between. But overall and above all thanks to the great line-up with Jennifer Coolidge, Ed Harris and Bill Murray, a very successful, entertaining genre mix cinema experience with a lot of dark black comedic energy.