I’ve missed a lot of things this year, but nothing more than sleuthing
around New York City in a little red sports car. OK, I’ve never actually sleuthed
around New York in a sports car, but Sofia Coppola’s love letter to the Big
Apple makes me want to add it to my to-do list for 2021.
In her new film "On the Rocks," starring Bill Murray and
Rashida Jones as father and daughter Felix and Laura, New York becomes a
character, of sorts, in the same way Tokyo was a main player in Coppola’s last
team-up with Murray, "Lost in Translation." As Felix and Laura slink around town,
hoping to learn the truth about Laura’s marriage insecurities, we ride along
with them, reminded of the bustling possibilities a night in the city
brings.
Coppola’s film focuses on the tonier parts of the town, from
cocktails at 21 Club to dinner at Raoul’s. Shot just a few months ago, it makes
the viewer long for what once was and hopefully will be again -- airy two-martini
lunches and fancy birthday dinners.
"I hope it’s a New York rooted enough in reality to be
relatable -- with just enough fantasy that it’s a little more elevated," said
Coppola. "I wanted to shoot in all those places that have that classic sense of
New York history and romance."
Beyond the setting, Murray and Jones make a magical on-screen
duo. Though they haven’t worked together before outside of the Coppola-directed "A Very Murray Christmas Special," the two have a natural father-daughter
chemistry. The banter crackles between the exuberant, charming Felix and the
grounded and maybe a bit stuck Laura. Laura agrees to follow Felix on a quest
around town to prove Laura’s husband’s infidelity, but really it’s about the
father and daughter repairing their own fractured relationship.
Coppola’s films haven’t felt so autobiographical since "Lost
in Translation" explored a young woman
abroad, finding herself. In this film, the older and more domestic Coppola shows
a woman at a new stage of life, finding herself once again as the film ponders
how women age, how to keep the spark in both your career and marriage after children
enter the picture and how relationships can heal. As she is now a married mom
of two who grew up in the shadow of her effusive filmmaker father, Francis Ford
Coppola, the story feels as personal as it is fun.
"I started writing this when I was in that moment of first
having little kids and just trying to figure out this whole new environment of
balancing being a mother with keeping up the excitement of your marriage while
also trying to do your work the way you’ve always done it," said Coppola. "There’s
a little bit of crisis to that moment. It’s a time when you can feel a bit
lost. You’re not exactly who you were, and you have to reconnect to yourself in
these new roles." For working moms, Coppola’s struggle is familiar.
Jones feels like a natural double for Coppola. Not only do
they both perfectly embody that "cool girl" vibe, but they both have larger-than-life dads (Jones' father is legendary music producer Quincy Jones) and have
started families with rock front-men (Jones is with the lead singer of Vampire
Weekend, Ezra Koenig, while Coppola has been married to Phoenix singer and frequent
collaborator Thomas Mars for 11 years). Jones slips into Coppola’s skin
effortlessly, yet always seems relatable despite the edge that immediately sets
her apart from other women in the room.
Murray, meanwhile, rides through the entire film on 10, like
an aged Peter Venkman, which is thrilling to see after so many subdued roles of
the recent past. He is both alternately frustrating and delightful, which
serves as the perfect foil to Jones’ responsible Laura. It’s great to see him in
doting dad mode -- a part he really hasn’t played before, though he wears it
well.
As emotionally-grounded as this film is, it’s also fun, a
little reckless and a bit of carefree nostalgia for pre-pandemic New York. As
Laura takes Felix up on his offer of adventure, it feels good to have
excitement, cocktails, spontaneous travel and pretty dresses on the horizon.
Who knows when or if we’ll get to zip around town in a cherry red convertible or
sip martinis at the iconic (and currently closed) Bemelmans Bar, like Laura
and Felix do, but if Laura can get out of her rut, even for a night, maybe
someday so can we.
"On the Rocks" premieres on Apple TV+ Friday, Oct. 23 and
is in select theaters now.