“Riff Raff,” with a starry cast led by Jennifer Coolidge, Bill Murray and Ed Harris, is one surprisingly on-target gangster drama.
Laughs are mostly absent with two families’ very survival at stake as “Riff Raff” fields a pair of gun-toting mobsters (Murray, Pete Davidson) intent on mass murder and revenge.
Harris’ Vincent, a retired killer, is being held captive by these executioners alongside his wife Sandy (Gabrielle Union), his ex Ruth (Coolidge), his two sons and others.
For Massachusetts’ own Coolidge, this dramatic change of pace from her Emmy and Golden Globe-winning work in two seasons of “The White Lotus,” was irresistible.
“I wanted to be on that wild ride. The script was really interesting. Sometimes, you know, you get scripts dropped off at your house and you take your time. But John Pollono can write like nobody’s business! It just never lingers.
“The film is really moving fast, and you can’t predict any of the funny moments. They come out of nowhere. And then these brilliant actors who are also hilarious people. When you find all that out – how could I have said no?”
Ruth is one very tough, if complicated cookie. While captive in this doomsday situation, she’s perhaps the most realistic about their chances of surviving.
“It’s very complicated familial relationships,” Coolidge, 63, allowed. “You’re there. He’s there with his second family right in right in front of you.”
Classically trained, does Coolidge invent entire backgrounds for her characters?
“I definitely do that, make a lot of decisions about the character.
“Then it’s in your brain naturally as we’re rehearsing. And even when we’re filming, you’re in control and, somehow, it all comes together. I can’t really explain. Some of it’s consciousness. Unconscious.”
A character actor who’s regularly struck the gong with standout turns, from being Stifler’s mom in the “American Pie” series, the manicurist in “Legally Blonde” and four of Christopher Guest’s brilliantly improvised comedies, “White Lotus,” she acknowledged, “put me back on the map.
“I don’t know, the world works in a weird way. Sometimes these things that I’ve been 100% sure of aren’t the things that end up being applauded and remembered.
“I sort of disappeared a little bit for some years. But that’s the great thing about Hollywood — you can have some surprises that are unexpected. And sometimes they could be really good surprises.
“Not only did I get to do ‘White Lotus’ (and that could have been enough, really), but then to get this movie after that! I got to see how funny Bill Murray is and how sassy he can be on a job.
“I don’t know if it gets any better than that.”
“Riff Raff” is in theaters now
