Friday Film Buff: Get Out

I watched Get Low the other night. That's the recent movie starring Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek in the story - based on a supposedly true legend - of a hermit who decides to hold a funeral for himself wile he's still alive. I liked it. Duvall and Spacek are always watchable, but I was really watching it because it also features the elusive Mr. Bill Murray as the moderately unscrupulous undertaker.
Knowing that the director, Aaron Schneider, had to go through the elaborate process of calling Murray's little-known 800 number (Murray fired his publicists and agents years ago), leaving a message, hoping that the unpredictable actor would call him back, sending a copy of the script via courier to Murray somewhere in New York (or wherever he might be at the time), hoping that Murray will get back to him with an affirmative response, and even then still hoping that Murray will show up on the first day of shooting (Murray is not fond of signing contracts), I take Murray's presence in the film as an indication that both he and the director felt that the story and/or the role were worthy of the trouble.
Like I said, I liked it. In particular, I liked Murray's performance, so it looks like Schneider's gamble paid off.
Today is kind of a two-fer, because, while I am definitely recommending Get Low as worthy of your viewership, I actually want to write about another one of my favorite Bill Murray films: Quick Change.

QUICK CHANGE: Movie Trailer. Watch more top selected videos about: Movie Trailers, Philip Bosco

You get the idea of the plot from the above trailer, and I am reluctant to share much more for fear of ruining any more of the surprises, but suffice it to say, it is classic Bill Murray.
Even more interesting to me is that -for the first and only time in his career - Murray stepped behind the camera to direct this film with screenwriter Howard Franklin. There are some very interesting (and darkly funny) touches in this film that I suspect were very much Bill Murray's influence. I'm not sure why he has not elected to direct any more films. Maybe he just feels it's too much work, but - based on Quick Change - I'd certainly pay to see more Murray-helmed cinematic offerings.