To honour one of the funniest, driest and most unpredictable comedians of our time, the Toronto International Film Festival has named Friday September 5 Bill Murray Day. The man we all want to be our friend, dad, brother, uncle, boyfriend or husband will be in town to promote his new movie St Vincent, and it looks awesome. But, starting at 10am, you can catch Stripes, Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. And as they say on the TIFF website, you never know who may show up for a post movie Q&A. Bill Murray. It's Bill Murray.
Of course, any list of the best Bill Murray films would include the three being shown on September 5, but to help you get up to speed on his movies, we have picked five others to round out your Murray manifest.
Scrooged: If you don't get a chance to watch this one before Bill Murray Day, you can bet it will be on television come December. This modern take on Charles Dickins' A Christmas Carol shows off how well Murray nails a combination of smug and witty. He uses that same angle in Ghostbusters but with the scale tilted closer to witty and further away from smug than as Frank Cross in Scrooged. You know the story already but this take is a lot more fun.
Ghostbusters II: Honestly, the original Ghostbusters is better than the sequel. You really can't beat the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man as a villain. But since that is already a TIFF pick, we went with the follow-up. This is the one with the scary guy living in the painting. And the pink goo coming out of Sigourney Weaver's bathtub. And the possessed baby carriage. Definitely an enjoyable watch with Bill Murray returning to one of the characters that best lets him show off his strengths.
Lost in Translation: It's always interesting to see an aging actor play an aging actor in a movie. That is why we are especially excited to see Michael Keaton in Birdman. But the similarities between Bill and his character Bob Harris in Lost in Translation seem to end at aging and actor. He really was only 53 in the movie too. In the movie his character befriends Scarlett Johansson's Charlotte as they both fight loneliness in Tokyo. Maybe watch this one as a Bill Murray double feature with Fantastic Mr. Fox to balance out the melancholy.
The Royal Tenenbaums: Wes Anderson is well known for finding his favourite actors and casting them over and over. Bill Murray has been in seven of his feature films. That is out of eight total. Although Murray was the lead in Anderson's The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, his supporting role in The Royal Tenenbaums is a real stand-out. He plays the distant neurologist husband of Gwyneth Paltrow's Margot Tenenbaum. His relationship with his reserach subject Dudley Heinsbergen is also sweet and hilarious.
St. Vincent: Alright, so you can't go see this one. Yet. But what you can do to get prepared for Bill Murray Day is to watch this trailer and get your tickets, stat. The movie is about a crusty war veteran who becomes an unlikely mentor to a little boy who moves in next door. It looks very funny and quite delightful.