Riff Raff Movie Review (2024)

A film that is a great definition of “fine,” Riff Raff has an excellent cast that is underutilized and a story that is unsure where it’s going.

Occasionally you find a movie that has such an excellent cast on the poster that you have to watch it. There is no reason that it shouldn’t be entertaining because there is so much potential to work with. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way.

Riff Raff is about a family (Vince, Sandy, and their son, DJ) who has gone away to their vacation home for the holidays. When Vince’s son, Rocco, shows up with his passed-out mother and his very-pregnant girlfriend, everyone attempts to “make nice” while Rocco seems to be hiding a secret. There are also two men hunting for Vince, assuming that Rocco will be with them.

Oh, how I wanted to like this movie. The cast includes Ed Harris, Bill Murray, Gabrielle Union, Jennifer Coolidge, Lewis Pullman, and Pete Davidson. I can name a dozen movies that I’ve enjoyed starring one of them, so when you put them all together, it should equal something good, right?

I kept waiting to be pulled into the story, but I couldn’t quite figure it out. I was waiting for things to make sense (or for something clever to happen?), but by the time everything finally (kind of?) came together, I wasn’t sure if I cared anymore.

This is billed as a comedy, and while there were one or two moments that were moderately amusing, I never found it funny, although you could tell that they tried. Lighthearted would be the best way to describe it.

Jennifer Coolidge did her thing, but her character was supposed to be trashier than her typical role. Ed Harris is always likeable, as is Lewis Pullman, but I never developed any real interest in either of them. I guess you could say the same for most of the characters, other than DJ. He was sweet – and the narrator – but anything that you did find interesting about him never got fleshed out. There was never any follow-through.

Bill Murray and Pete Davidson were underutilized through most of the film, and when they finally got some screen time, I was looking forward to some cleverness – something meatier. Unfortunately it wasn’t there.

I never connected with this movie because I’m not sure that it even knew what it wanted to be. There were some clearly ad-libbed lines that felt uneven and awkward, and it made me wonder if anyone had a vision for how this would come together in the end. I’m still wondering.

Lastly, the final shot is of one of the characters looking straight into the camera. How this put a satisfying button on the story, I can’t imagine (I assume that the message was that family continues on, but sigh). All I could think of was small Audrey II at the end of Little Shop of Horrors smiling into the camera. The rating I’m giving this film is entirely for the cast, but this is a hard “eh” for me.

Runtime: 103 minutes

Motion Picture Rating: R

Languages Spoken In The Film: English

Should You Watch It? No, skip it

Did I Cry? Nope

My Rating: 1.75/5 Stars

Available: Free on Hulu, to rent on Prime Video, or may be available for free on other streaming platforms