Celebrity actor of “Groundhog Day” (Bill Murray) is sitting in New York City at the Carlisle Hotel getting ready to play “The Bill Murray Christmas Show” that the network has ordered. Various famous people should come to visit Bill on the show. However, Bill is unhappy and only thinks about how to cancel this show. Because the city is up. Airports are closed. The trains stopped. Buses, tunnels and bridges do not work. Even a couple of bars closed! The whole of New York is standing because of the snow – just like before Groundhog Day. And Bill understands that in such weather no one will come to his transmission. And he really doesn’t want to run this show alone.
However, the noisy female producers Liz (Amy Poehler) and Bev (Julie White) come running into the room and explain that, Bill, the show will still have to be done, Bill, the network has been advertising the show since October, you don’t want to get a bunch of lawsuits , right? And Bill, creaking his heart and joints, goes with them to the hall for the show, which is located in the same hotel.
In the hall, Bill is in for an even bigger surprise. It turns out that these lying bitches, ladies producers, were not going to organize a show with celebrities. There is only a camera and a piano in the hall. Well, a few photos of celebrities – George Clooney, Paul McCartney and the Pope – which should put Murray in the right mood.
He must say something and sing there, they will mount records from last year’s Golden Globe to this, the bitches explain, and that’s it, the show is ready!
Bill, of course, is furious, but chance saves everything: because of the accident, the electricity went out, and this, as the ladies explain, is force majeure, so the insurance will cover all losses. Therefore, Murray may not hold the show, but he will still receive the money.
And now Bill, along with old friend Paul Shaffer (Paul Shaffer), who plays the role of an accompanist on the show, sits in the Carlisle bar and sings songs. He will have to save the stocks of dying food (refrigerators have been turned off), comfort the newlyweds, whose wedding was covered because of the storm, and there – who knows: maybe George Clooney will still be somewhere in the bushes?
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A 2015 film by Sofia Coppola starring Bill Murray and also starring several other good actors and actresses. And why didn’t I watch it, I thought, when this picture was recommended to me? However, the rating on IMDB for such a composition was very low, but the rating is not a dogma for me (I know many cases when excellent films had low ratings, and any crap had great ratings), so I decided to watch it anyway.
Looked. I really liked it, but it became clear why such a low rating. The audience tuned in to a musical comedy with Bill Murray staged by Sofia Coppola and imagined something like “Lost in Translation” (staged by Sofia Coppola, starring Bill Murray), only in a comedy-musical version.
And this is actually a TV skit-cabal, filmed by order of Netflix. Very simple, very inexpensive, all the action takes place in three locations of one hotel. And the movie is only an hour long, not an hour and a half.
There are several funny scenes – with the ladies-producers, with the young and arrogant Jackie (Michael Cera), cramming into Murray as producers, with Chris Rock, with the newlyweds and so on. Well, the number with Clooney is both cool and staged great.
There are also many classic songs in the film, which are performed by both Murray and his guests. From the music pros, the French band Phoenix (they play cooks) and singer Miley Cyrus appear.
Is it interesting to see all this? It was very interesting to me. First – because there are a lot of references to other films with Bill Murray. A hotel room and a languishing aging star who needs to work on his performance – well, pure “Lost in Translation”.
Murray, quarreling with aunts-producers – intonations there are one to one like Frank Cross from “A New Christmas Tale”. Where, by the way, did David Johansen migrate to this film, who played the ghost of last Christmas there, and here he portrayed a very cool bartender.
Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman played together in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore Academy.
The second is Sofia Coppola, a director who knows how to create a certain, very warm mood in a film. The same “Lost in Translation” is an amazingly moody film.
Here her skill has not changed. And the question “why for such a trinket it was necessary to call Sofia Coppola” is illegal. Because it’s not a bauble. The fact that the picture looks good and creates a great Christmas mood is also its merit, because it is very skillfully staged.
Great Bill Murray, great songs, great guest actors who obviously enjoy filming here, some funny scenes – I really enjoyed it.
Yes, this seems to be a trifle-cabbage. But this is exactly what you want to see on Christmas or New Year’s Eve.
Turn on this film instead of the mothballed and terribly dull “Blue Light”. I guarantee that this picture will feel completely different!
A Very Murray Christmas movie meaning
Director: Sofia Coppola Cast: Bill Murray, George Clooney, Amy Poehler, Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Rashida Jones, Maya Rudolph, Michael Cera, Miley Cyrus, Paul Shaffer, Dmitry Dmitrov, David Johansen, Jenny Lewis, Julie White
Comedy musical, USA, 2015, 56 min.