We Know What Started the Sad Bill Murray Era

In 2001, one genius movie had unintended consequences.

Perhaps Wes Anderson's best ensemble effort, 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums, is a whimsically melancholy storybook tale of flawed genius and complex familial relations. For all intents and purposes, it's as wonderful as Anderson gets.

But the film had unintended consequences. Not just in the sudden appearance of track-suited bros in Afro wigs at Halloween parties-—those are bad enough. Worse, it brought us the era of Sad Bill Murray.

Look, everybody loves Bill Murray these days. He's become a modern legend. People whisper his name into the wind in hopes he'll creep up behind them in a golf cart, buy them shots and disappear into the night, but only after filling their tanks with gas and hiring a maid service to clean up the next day.

But it wasn't until Murray's re-emergence as a dour, depressed character actor that millennials began to grasp the actor's manic spirit. That's pretty weird, considering this is a man who spent the beginning of his career maniacally hamming it up in broader comedies, only to be resurrected as a youthful folk hero once he largely ceased making rollicking, smart comedies like What About Bob? and Ghostbusters.

With his portrayal of Margot Tenenbaum's depressive husband, Raleigh St. Clair—perhaps the most downtrodden character in a movie full of depressed goofballs—Murray began to pull a screwball Pagliacci. Sure, in Rushmore his Herman Bloom wasn't without depressive issues, but you could still recognize that same old Bill Murray asshole archetype underneath the veneer. Bloom came off like a more serious version of Murray's other cantankerous goofballs: From Groundhog Day's bitter Phil Conners to his bah-humbug exec in Scrooged, Murray has always excelled at finding the heart in crusty dickheads.

St. Clair, though, is sad through and through. He is a character more tragi- than comic (despite his weird experiments with Dudley), and one that seems to have opened the door to Murray's late-day renaissance as a total downer.

The stronger films of the Sad Bill Murray phase are often cited as highlights of Murray's career, with fans ranking his performances in Lost in Translation and Broken Flowers among the best. The worst of the lot include a great performance in the cloyingly shitty St. Vincent and the wank jobs Monuments Men and Hyde Park on the Hudson. All point to an actor who tapped into his tear ducts and has seldom looked back when it comes to starring roles.

With Rushmore, Anderson opened that very serious door for the first time since the misbegotten 1984 passion project The Razor's Edge. The Royal Tenenbaums kicked him right through it. Hipsters loved it (of course they did; it's Wes Anderson with Elliott Smith songs). Murray was canonized.

But in the era of Sad Bill Murray, it's hard not to long for a late-period What About Bob? or, hell, even a Quick Change. That's not because Sad Bill Murray can't be great. But sometimes, we want to see one of the world's favorite goofballs be goofy beyond a cameo. When even A Very Murray Christmas special was a downer, it's hard not to lose a little hope. But hey, at least Raleigh St. Clair makes the rest of the Tenenbaums seem like rays of sunshine! Sigh.

SEE IT: The Royal Tenenbaums is at Cartopia. 9 pm Sunday, Sept. 4. Free.

APFilmStudies_2015_KryzaAlso Showing:

The great Church of Film underground series celebrates three years with a takeover of Killingsworth Dynasty featuring a live score of Italian occult oddities Il Fauno (1917) and Rapsodia Satanica (1915). Come for the Faustian nightmares, stay to learn what you've been missing from one of the city's most daring film series. Killingsworth Dynasty. 8 pm Wednesay, Aug. 31.

Rocky commemorates 40 years of terribly choreographed boxing and showing people how awesome losing can really be. Pix Patisserie. Dusk, Wednesday, Aug. 31.

How do you make a knight evil, especially when said knight is Michael Knight? Why, pit him against a different Michael Knight… an evil twin version. Who drives a semi. talks. That's how Knight Rider rolled. And that's what Re-Run Theater is celebrating with this weird-as-fuck episode of the non-classic series. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Wednesday, Aug. 31.

Often overshadowed by the likes of Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 adventure Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind plays like a precursor to Princess Mononoke as it spins the gorgeous tale of a pacifistic warrior princess drawn into the middle of a war. Academy Theater. Friday-Thursday, Sept. 2-8.

A lesser-known John Waters classic, 1970's Multiple Maniacs once again casts Divine as a traveling exhibitionist fronting a gang of psychos. Hippies of the era, suffice to say, were harmed in the making of this fucked-up gem. Hollywood Theatre. 9:30 pm Friday-Sunday, Sept. 2-4.

1938's Errol Flynn-starring The Adventures of Robin Hood manages what neither Disney nor Costner nor Russell Crowe have managed in the ensuing decades: A decent take on Robin Hood. (Swayze, as Father Hood, on the other hand…). Hollywood Theatre. 2:30 pm Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 3-4.

Goonies never say die. And never leave a Portland movie screen untouched in the summer. Mission Theater. Opens Sunday, Sept. 4.

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