BEFORE: Bill Murray carries over from "On the Rocks", and this one was in my Netflix queue for a long time - too long, in fact, because by the time I got around to it, it had scrolled off the service, but never fear, no movie is gone for very long these days - I tracked it down on TubiTV instead, but you can also catch it on Vudu, PlutoTV and Crackle right now, all for FREE, though you'll have to watch a few ads.
I'm doubling up today because "On the Rocks" wasn't part of the plan at first, and I don't want to be late with my Father's Day movie - plus I start my new job next Friday, and it's going to be harder for me to watch movies unless I stay up until 4 am, which isn't very smart. I'm just not sure how much time I'll have for blogging this summer, maybe I'll have to cut back to 5 movies a week or something.
THE PLOT: This documentary explores various urban legends around Hollywood's most elusive star.
AFTER: I read a great quote in a puzzle magazine the other day, it said "A celebrity is a person who works hard all their life to become famous, and then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized." (attributed to Fred Allen). These words ring true, only Bill Murray seems to be one of the exceptions to the rule. It's easier than ever these days to become famous, all you have to do is make a few TikTok videos or a sex-tape, but that's all fleeting, right? Bill Murray's been around since the 1970's and his star just kept on rising all that time, and he's at the level now where he can't go anywhere without being recognized, so why bother hiding? Why not lean into it, pose for those selfies, give fans something to remember when they lock eyes, or shake hands. And if he poses for a few wedding photos with a couple getting married, they're going to remember that day - AND HIM - for the rest of their lives. He's become so much a part of other people's stories that he'll essentially be immortal for a time, he won't die until all those people he encountered pass on.
It doesn't seem that hard to encounter the man, he's got five houses around the country and seems to lead a pretty free-wheeling lifestyle, at least when he's not making a movie. As a regular person hanging out in Charleston, SC or Chicago or Martha's Vineyard or (REDACTED) in upstate New York, you've probably got a better chance of bumping into him than, say, an obscure director trying to make a documentary about him. (Although director Tommy Avallone did eventually succeed, sort of - his filmed phone messages to Mr. Murray's hotline are just the WORST form of self-indulgency.). Charleston may be your best bet, as Bill owns a restaurant there and part of a minor-league baseball team, the Charleston River Dogs (or try the stadiums of the St. Paul Saints, or the Hudson Valley Renegades, this guy loves baseball...)
Probably the best way to get in touch with Bill Murray is to have the good fortune to be born as his brother, or one of his two sons. That way he probably HAS to talk to you. But as I say, he's fairly outgoing and he turns up in some of the most unlikely places, like that kickball game you're playing in, or maybe that Karaoke night out with your friends - what I'm saying is, there's no need to stalk the guy, just live your life, and maybe one day he'll turn up, or maybe he won't. Life's kind of unpredictable that way. But still, one documentary director decided to get a bunch of people together who HAD encountered Bill Murray IRL and had interesting stories to tell, like that time Bill was at a college party and played tambourine with a female band. Or the other party he was at in London, where he ended up washing the dishes. Did he really grab a few french fries off that woman's plate in a restaurant? Or was this all just an excuse to get people together to tell a few tall tales and license a bunch of footage from "Groundhog Day", "Scrooged" and "Meatballs"?
I tend to think these people are all on the level, because I've had more than my own share of encounters with celebrities, mostly from the world of "Star Wars" but also by going to film festivals, Comic-Cons and working in the field of animation, and music videos before that. Not counting the times I went to rock concerts and Broadways shows (paying to see a celebrity doesn't count), I've been lucky enough to rub elbows (or at least been in the same room) with Penn Gillette, Ray Bradbury, Michael Moore, Justin Long, John Ritter, Keith Carradine, Martha Plimpton, Matthew Modine, Beverly D'Angelo, Tom Noonan, Jay O. Sanders, Morgan Spurlock, Matt Groening, Mike Judge, Stan Lee, Neil Gaiman, Seth Green, Leon Redbone, Dr. John, Rick James, Dana Ashbrook, Kanye West, Adam Sandler, Judah Friedlander, Darren Aronofsky, Michael Rosenbaum, Bianca Jagger, and (passing on the street or in a hallway) Dean Winters, David Letterman, and then the big one, I got to meet "Weird Al" Yankovic during his concert after-party. Yeah, I still keep that photo of Al and me on my phone, it comes in very handy sometimes.
(On the "Star Wars" front, I've been super-lucky - I've gotten selfies with Carrie Fisher, Natalie Portman and Peter Mayhew, plus at conventions or on the street I've encountered Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, Frank Oz, Kenny Baker, Ray Park, Jeremy Bulloch, Jake Lloyd, Daniel Logan, Paul Blake, Richard LeParmentier, maybe three or four others who don't leap to mind right now. Also Brent Spiner and Marina Sirtis from "Star Trek", but I'm really a "Star Wars" guy. My convention adventures have tapered off some, since I don't go out to San Diego any more, and the NYCC was cancelled last year - so all of my recent additions to the autograph collection have not included personal interactions.)
You might imagine I've gotten blasé about meeting celebrities - you know, they're just like regular people, except for the ways in which they aren't. Regular people don't have handlers, press agents, personal assistants, bodyguards and travel coordinators, after all. But in that way, Bill Murray's kind of more like a regular person, he doesn't seem to have a staff, it's just him. He goes where he wants, he does what he does, and he tries to have fun with his image and his fame. (We don't know if he's really crying on the inside, but I'd like to think not.). He might even be comfortable in his own skin, and to the average observer, this can come off as a bit of a zen thing. I'm not completely sold on this being part of an overall method of looking at the universe, because the documentarian here combines Bill's real travels with fictional material from Bill's movies, which he didn't write, to suggest an overall philosophy that in the end, nothing really matters, so you might as well roll with the changes and try to have a good time. (The motivational speech from "Meatballs" is the catalyst here, but throw in the futility displayed in "Groundhog Day" the sadness of "Broken Flowers" and "Lost in Translation", the zen of "Caddyshack" and the redemption of "Scrooged", and you know what, I'm still not convinced. Save it for your film criticism thesis, would you?)
Even if it's all true, bear in mind that at any given moment, Bill Murray, by default is somewhere, doing something - I hope it's something fun, but right now he could be grocery shopping, or doing laundry, or sleeping on a plane between one place and another. Or maybe he's just reading a nice book or drinking a cup of coffee, there's no way to tell. It's great that he likes to make other people's lives a bit more surreal by posing for photos, or giving them an extra ticket for a Cubs game, or guest-bartending on a whim. Those things all mean something only because he's a celebrity, people have seen him in movies, enjoyed his performances, and then there's a bit of a disconnect when they encounter the man on the street, or in a public restaurant. He's decided to lean into it and embrace the fear, part of that comes from being a comedian and doing improv, for sure, but we don't know in the end. Maybe he's frequently bored and he's just looking for ways to pass the time and get through life, just like the rest of us.
And so the man remains, at best, an enigma. What do we really know about him, beyond his Wikipedia page? If the movie industry collapsed, would he cease to exist? What about all the other hundreds of actors who couldn't sustain their careers beyond a few roles, for whatever reason? Where are THEY working now, in banks or grocery stores or on construction sites? Fame is fleeting, everything is temporary, and reality is subjective, so we probably shouldn't jump to overarching conclusions about what it all means in the end. All we have is this moment, right now, and maybe a few short-term plans, but I'd hardly call that a way of life. Sure, get out there and have fun and do things and be excellent to each other, make a difference in the world if you can, but let's not waste time getting all philosophical about it.
Also starring David Allan, Balu Art, Tommy Avallone, John Barnhardt, Christopher Beaumont, Mike Bozzuffi, Lee Briccetti, Katie Calautti, Jesse Cates, Johnath Davis, Albert DiGiacomo, Gavin Edwards, Peter Farrelly, Brian Gallagher, Jordan Goetz, Charna Halpern, Josh Horowitz, Michael Impollonia, Jensen Jacobs, Rachel Keefe, Scott Kmiotek, Mark Malkoff, Samuel Maune, Brett McKee, Eric Francis Melaragni, Susan Messing, Adam Morgan, Joel Murray (last seen in "Lay the Favorite"), Robert Naeder, Joe Nicchi, Ryan Petrillo, Trevor Rathbone, Sofia Rocher, Laura Ross, Fieron Santos, Doug Shimell, Mike Thomas, Tyler Van Aiken, Noah Wible, Tom Wright
with archive footage of Cate Blanchett (last seen in "The House with a Clock in Its Walls"), Del Close, Stephen Colbert (last seen in "The Accidental President"), Sofia Coppola, Willem Dafoe (last seen in "The Lighthouse"), Mitch Glazer, Woody Harrelson (last seen in "Shock and Awe"), Catherine Hicks, Carol Kane (last seen in "Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond"), David Letterman (ditto), Andie MacDowell (last seen in "The Last Laugh" (2019)), Chris Makepeace, Jaeden Martell (last seen in "It: Chapter Two"), Melissa McCarthy (last seen in "The Kitchen"), Chris O'Dowd (last seen in "The Cloverfield Paradox"), Gilda Radner (last seen in "Love, Gilda"), Ivan Reitman, Al Roker, RZA (last seen in "The Dead Don't Die"), The GZA (last seen in "Coffee and Cigarettes"), Paul Shaffer (last seen in "A Very Murray Christmas"), Emma Stone (last seen in "Zombieland: Double Tap"), Naomi Watts (last seen in "Matinee"), George Wendt (last seen in "Sandy Wexler").
RATING: 6 out of 10 construction workers listening to poetry
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