On the Rocks (dir. Sofia Coppola, 2020)

What a piece of work is a man. So marvels Sofia Coppola’s latest offering, a woolly ramble through a distant, Covid-free New York, and a saccharine father-daughter relationship which, as in many of Coppola’s films, offers more than a little autobiographical precedent. The film doesn’t try to explain or resolve the entangled, anxiety-inducing web of relationships it presents; it merely invites the audience to raise their eyebrows at their engaging, yet predictable rewards.

Two generational tropes collide in the plot: the 'happily ever after’ of a glittering nineties rom-com, and the ‘boomer hate wife’ sensibilities of ‘70s misogyny, from James Bond to Animal House. Coppola explores the relationship between these cinematic formulae- one which promises that love can last forever, and one which demonises women over the age of 25.

Bill Murray steals the show as Felix, the caddish old dog of a father to whom Rashida Jones’ Laura turns with suspicions of her husband’s infidelity. Murray’s standing as a comic actor proves ideal for Coppola’s anodyne depiction of a problematic yet ultimately lovable father. There’s a blend of sliminess and entitlement that only Murray could make palatable, as he chugs from members’ club to high-end restaurant via chauffeured Mercedes or cherry-red Alfa Romeo, ogling waitresses, clients, and his granddaughter’s ballet instructor. It’s like catching up with the self-centred, needy male protagonist of a Woody Allen film forty years down the line- from the daughter’s point of view.

Despite #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, Felix proceeds on his merry, lecherous way with the gaffe-prone lack of self awareness of the archetypal WASP. Several ‘cutesy' moments come off as more tone-deaf than critical, as when he and Laura are pulled over by the cops: with a bit of elderly white privilege, the police end up pushing their car off to resume the pursuit of Laura’s husband, thanked with a shout of ‘New York’s finest!’

In the rare moments that Felix is deprived of his eye candy, leaving him with his increasingly weary daughter and her own host of marital insecurities, a more nuanced dynamic struggles to emerge. It’s a depiction of a woman’s fear that she’s becoming old and unlovable, rooted in her father’s philandering ways- and the same father’s paradoxical efforts to convince her otherwise. Coppola nicely captures the tension and self-doubt of a woman torn between two contradicting narratives of the relationship between men and women, making Laura seem gaslit by both husband and father. Das Boot it ain’t. A fruity, indulgent bouquet, spiced with bumbling marital intrigue and a base of spoilt, super-rich New York elitism.

Áine Kennedy is a London-based writer and manager of the ScriptUp blog.