IR Film Review: ON THE ROCKS [A24/AppleTV+]
With many of Sofia Coppola's movies, they are stories, simply told, with a degree of texture. They are not exceptional stories but perhaps in the aspect that they are exceptional for some people. As she has become more mature in her directing, the scenes and the way she directs them has a lighter touch while still contextualizing a darkness beneath. A person who did this in a similar situation but with slightly more jazz to it was Alexander Payne with the Hawaii set "The Descendants" which still holds up well many years later. "On The Rocks" is a tale of perspective but also misdirects. It is pretty much a two-hander between Rashida Jones as a daughter whose husband may or may not be straying and her father, a relentless charmer who sometimes is misled in the form of Bill Murray. Murray has always been the bright light in the younger Coppola's films because she knows how to highlight his strengths without crowding him in. Murray is jazz but only some directors can find this, Harold Ramis and perhaps Jim Jarmusch among them. But he is never so likable or empathetic as Coppola can make him.
The story and its thrust are not important (though its trajectory does feel similar in certain ways again to "The Descendants" but from a younger point-of-view). It is set in beautiful places such as the dark shadowy but elegant old lounges of New York but this father/daughter tale in an essence of both love and miscommunication, even though these characters are close. This is not necessarily a reflection of Sofia's father at all but the character Rashida plays is a writer nonetheless juggling two kids with a husband that is gone...and her father jet sets around the world Sofia herself is married to a musician who tours and has two kids as well. But her father is now happy making wine in Northern California. One needs to write what is surrounding even as a superstructure. There is a sweetness to Jones but yet a sadness, again an interesting dichotomy considering her father is very famous too. So in this basis, "On The Rocks" works on a very human level. The dialogue is biting and full of meaning (again written by the younger Coppola) and yet never overtly critical to the point of anger. It is an interesting balance. And with Murray stirring the pot in the background, there is a lyricism to the film, which may not work for all but feels beautiful at times here.
A-
By Tim Wassberg
