Remember when eating in restaurants, not wearing masks and shaking hands was a thing? If you're having trouble recalling The Before Times, then you'll definitely want to check out the trailer for director Sofia Coppola's newest film, On the Rocks. The just-released (and very charming) clip doubles as an ode to pre-pandemic New York.
The upcoming film reunites the Academy Award-winning Coppola with the great Bill Murray, who previously appeared in Coppola's 2003 classic Lost in Translation and 2015's offbeat Netflix holiday special A Very Murray Christmas. In On the Rocks, Murray stars as a concerned father to a character played by the tremendous Rashida Jones. (It's worth mentioning that Jones also appeared in A Very Murray Christmas.) He's worried that his daughter's husband is cheating on her, so he suggests that they follow his son-in-law around town.
Even in a brief trailer, which can be seen up above, the onscreen father-daughter duo's chemistry is delightful. It's a pleasure to just watch them romp through New York City in a cherry red convertible, sip martinis and banter about perspectives on marriage. There's just something comforting to hear Murray say, "Hey kiddo," to Jones at the start of the trailer. Can you tell we're excited for this?
Anyway, here's a fuller and official synopsis of the movie, via IndieWire: "Laura (Rashida Jones) thinks she's happily hitched, but when her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) starts logging late hours at the office with a new co-worker, Laura begins to fear the worst. She turns to the one man she suspects may have insight: her charming, impulsive father Felix (Bill Murray), who insists they investigate the situation. As the two begin prowling New York at night, careening from uptown parties to downtown hotspots, they discover at the heart of their journey lies their own relationship."
The cast also includes Jenny Slate (Parks and Recreation), Jessica Henwick (Game of Thrones), Jules Wilcox (Bloodline) and Musto Pelinkovicci (Limitless).
In April, Coppola spoke about On the Rocks during a chat at the 92Y. She explained that the film conveys how your relationship with your parents can affect your relationships in your adult life. "It's the two of them as a father and daughter sort of on a little adventure to spy on her husband," she noted. "It's a lot of them talking about life and men and women over martinis in New York."
Coppola also revealed in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview that Jones helped her workshop Scarlett Johansson's character in Lost in Translation.
"When I was working on Lost in Translation, I was workshopping the script at an acting class, and she played the role that Scarlett Johansson ended up playing," Coppola explained. "I remember first working with her then and always having a connection to her and really liking her!"
The director and actress then became friends, and Coppola added that she admired Jones' "lovable, smart, and strong" attitude, and felt that she was the perfect fit to play Laura.
Additionally, Coppola explained that she never anticipated collaborating with Murray again, following their success with Lost in Translation. "I never thought I could do something with Bill again, because people have such a fondness of him and Lost in Translation. I could never recreate something like that, so I never wanted to touch it."
She obviously had a change of heart. "But, all this time has passed, and I loved working with him and I love seeing him in film," Coppola said. "We haven't really seen him as this debonair, playboy father at this stage [of life], so I just had to get over it because now we're in a different phase [of life]."
On the Rocks is slated to hit theaters—which, we'll see—and stream on AppleTV+ this October.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
