Bill Murray in a vintage red convertible, speeding through the narrow, rain-slicked streets of Soho while humming a jazz tune. It’s a vibe. Honestly, that’s usually what people remember first about the On the Rocks film, Sofia Coppola’s 2020 collaboration with Apple TV+ and A24. But if you look past the martini-swilling charm of Murray’s character, Felix, you find a movie that’s actually a pretty sharp, somewhat painful look at what happens when the "happily ever after" part of marriage turns into a monotonous loop of laundry and school runs.
Rashida Jones plays Laura, a writer living in a stunningly aspirational New York apartment. She’s stuck. She has writer’s block, two kids who need constant attention, and a husband, Dean (played by Marlon Wayans), who is suddenly traveling a lot for his tech startup. When she finds a woman’s toiletry bag in his luggage, she doesn't confront him. Instead, she calls her father.
Felix is the kind of dad who thinks every woman in the room is in love with him and uses his art-dealer connections to park illegally anywhere in Manhattan. He’s the ultimate "girl dad" of a certain generation—doting, yet completely incapable of seeing women as equals to men. He immediately convinces Laura that Dean is cheating. Why? Because Felix cheated. He views the world through the lens of evolutionary biology and 1950s pickup lines.
The Reality of the Mid-Life Funk in On the Rocks
Most movies about Manhattan are either gritty or overly sparkly. The On the Rocks film sits in this weird, lovely middle ground. It’s wealthy, sure, but it feels lived-in. You’ve got these long takes of Laura just staring at a blinking cursor on her laptop. It’s relatable. Who hasn't felt like their partner is drifting away into a world of work meetings and "important" dinners while you’re left holding the diaper bag?
Coppola doesn't lean into the melodrama here. She could have made this a thriller about a cheating spouse. Instead, she made a "dad and daughter" buddy comedy that is secretly a tragedy about how our parents' baggage ruins our own relationships.
The chemistry between Murray and Jones is the engine. It’s effortless. Murray isn't doing the "sad clown" bit he did in Lost in Translation. He’s more of a rogueish ghost. He’s a man who has lived a full life and refuses to believe he’s no longer the center of the universe. When he tells Laura that women are "designed to be pursued," you want to roll your eyes, and Laura does, but she also listens. That’s the danger of the film. It shows how easily we fall back into old patterns when we’re feeling insecure.
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Why the Critics Were Split
When it dropped, some people called it "lightweight." They wanted another Marie Antoinette or The Beguiled. They felt like a story about a rich woman in a nice apartment having a mid-life crisis was too low-stakes.
But that’s missing the point.
The stakes aren't global. They're internal. The On the Rocks film asks a very specific question: Can you ever really trust a man when your own father proved himself to be untrustworthy? It’s a quiet movie. It doesn't scream its themes at you. It whispers them over expensive drinks at the 21 Club.
- The Cinematography: Philippe Le Sourd (who worked on The Beguiled) shoots New York at night like it's a dream. Everything has this amber glow.
- The Soundtrack: Phoenix (the band led by Coppola’s husband, Thomas Mars) provides a score that is synth-heavy but somehow feels classic.
- The Fashion: Laura’s wardrobe—mostly Chanel and simple basics—is a masterclass in "quiet luxury" before that was even a TikTok trend.
Fact-Checking the Felix Archetype
People often wonder if Bill Murray's character is based on a real person. Coppola has been pretty open in interviews with The New York Times and Vulture that Felix is a composite of her own father, Francis Ford Coppola, and other legendary men from that "Old World" era. These are men who can charm a police officer out of a speeding ticket but can't remember their daughter's favorite book.
There’s a scene where Felix uses a whistle to get a cab. It’s a tiny detail, but it says everything about his entitlement. He expects the world to bend for him. Laura, on the other hand, is constantly trying to stay out of the way. The friction between Felix’s "main character energy" and Laura’s "observer energy" is where the movie finds its heartbeat.
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Interestingly, the movie was shot on location in New York City in 2019, just before the world shut down. This gives it a secondary layer of nostalgia. It’s a postcard of a city that was about to change forever. The bars are crowded. People are touching. There’s a freedom in their movement that feels poignant now.
The Marlon Wayans Factor
Marlon Wayans is the unsung hero of the On the Rocks film. We’re so used to seeing him in broad comedies like White Chicks, but here he is restrained. He’s just a guy. He’s tired. He’s trying to build a business. He loves his wife, but he’s also distracted.
The brilliance of his performance is the ambiguity. For 80% of the movie, you aren't sure if Felix is right. Dean is acting suspicious. He is hanging out with a very pretty colleague (played by Jenny Slate, who is hilarious in her brief scenes). Coppola plays with our expectations. We’ve seen the "cheating husband" trope so many times that we assume it’s happening.
But the movie is more interested in the paranoia of the spouse left behind. It’s about the stories we tell ourselves when we’re lonely. Laura isn't just investigating Dean; she’s investigating her own worthiness of being loved.
Technical Mastery and A24’s Influence
The partnership between Apple and A24 was still relatively new when this came out. You can see the A24 DNA in the pacing. It’s slow. It’s deliberate. It lets the silences sit.
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It also avoids the typical "third act" explosion. There is no screaming match in the rain. There is no dramatic montage of burning clothes. Instead, the resolution is found in a conversation in a hotel room in Mexico. It’s subtle. It’s adult.
Some viewers found the ending "unsatisfying." I’d argue it’s the only honest ending possible. Real life doesn't always have a smoking gun. Sometimes, the "smoking gun" is just a misunderstanding fueled by a father’s own guilt.
Practical Takeaways for Your Next Watch
If you’re going to sit down with the On the Rocks film tonight, here is how to get the most out of it:
- Watch the background characters. The New York "types" in the restaurants and at the school gates are perfectly observed.
- Listen to the dialogue. Felix’s lines are filled with "men are like this, women are like that" nonsense that is actually quite revealing of his own failures.
- Pay attention to the color palette. Notice how Laura’s world gets brighter and more chaotic whenever Felix enters the frame. He is a disruptor.
- Look for the quiet moments. The scenes where Laura is just driving or walking alone speak louder than the banter.
Basically, this isn't a movie you watch for the plot. You watch it for the atmosphere. You watch it to see two great actors play off each other in a city that looks like a jewelry box.
How to Apply the Movie's Wisdom
While it's a piece of fiction, the film offers some pretty solid life lessons if you’re paying attention. It’s mostly about communication and the danger of letting outside voices—even those of your parents—dictate the health of your marriage.
- Trust but verify (internally): Laura’s mistake wasn't doubting Dean; it was letting Felix drive the investigation. If you have a gut feeling, talk to your partner, not your cynical relatives.
- The "Motherhood Identity" crisis: The film captures the specific grief of losing your creative self to the demands of parenting. If you're feeling like Laura, the answer isn't a private investigator—it's usually a dedicated space for your own work.
- The Felix Trap: Don't let charismatic people convince you that their cynical view of the world is "the truth." Felix thinks everyone cheats because he did. His reality is a projection.
To wrap this up, the On the Rocks film is a gem. It’s not a diamond—it’s maybe a cool, slightly flawed opal. It’s moody, it’s funny, and it’s deeply human. It doesn't try to be the greatest movie ever made. It just tries to tell a specific story about a specific woman at a specific crossroads in her life. And in doing that, it becomes something much more universal than a simple caper about a suspected affair.
Next time you’re scrolling through a streaming service and can’t decide what to watch, give this one a shot. Don't expect a thriller. Expect a conversation. Expect a martini. Expect Bill Murray to make you smile, even when he's being a bit of a jerk. It’s well worth the ninety minutes.