The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned From a Mythical Man.
If you have ever been a fan of Bill Murray, it’s very likely that you will be an even bigger one after watching the documentary “The Bill Murray Stories.”
This new documentary now streaming on Netflix is directed by and stars Tommy Avallone. The 1 hour-eleven minute film, follows Tommy as he sets out to investigate the urban legends of Bill Murray encounters, and ultimately, get the chance to meet Bill Murray himself.
Apparently, getting to meet Bill Murray in a professional capacity, is not as easy as one would think. The only way to get a hold of the Hollywood recluse to pitch him any sort of show business project is through a “1-800” number attached to a voicemail system (which Tommy makes several aborted attempts to leave a message on) that Bill Murray only checks once in a while. Through watching the movie, it seems as if a random person on the street has a better chance of meeting Bill Murray than the biggest showbiz mogul does.
While I was not personally aware of this, but over many decades, stories have been accumulating about ordinary people who have unexpectedly encountered Bill Murray in everyday social situations (most taking place in South Carolina, where he lives). The stories run the gamut from the ordinary (posing for a picture, drink at a bar), to the super fantastical (Crashing a frat party in London where he washes their dirty dishes).
Of course, it doesn’t really matter what Bill Murray is doing in in each story. Just the fact that Bill Murray is involved gives each one an almost surrealistic vibe. You can see how anyone being told any of these stories could have trouble believing them. “What was Bill Murray doing at a kickball game?” “What was Bill Murray doing working as a roadie for a local band performing at a house party?” “Why was Bill Murray reading poetry to a group of construction workers?”
There are a couple of references in the film that liken an encounter with Bill Murray, to an encounter with Bigfoot. No one is going to believe you, and even if you have photographic evidence, they’ll still think some sort of photoshopping had been done. If this film accomplishes nothing else, it definitively puts to end any doubt about whether these encounters do happen. It will make a believer out of anyone, and leave you wishing that you’ll have your own encounter with Bill Murray someday.
In its genre of Indie Documentary, this film gets top marks. Using only a single movie camera and low-quality footage of Bill Murray shot on the smartphones of those he interviews about their encounters, the director manages to put together a compelling and entertaining story to watch. He takes all these seemingly innocuous stories, and uses them to discover something new about a person who has been known for decades. Through the course of the movie, you realize how Bill Murray possesses an almost Zen-like spirit.
The appeal of this documentary is mainly directed towards fans of Bill Murray, and not necessarily “super-fans”. Anyone who has ever seen him in “Saturday Night Live”, “Meatballs”, “Stripes”, “Ghostbusters”, “Groundhog Day”, or even more recent films like “Lost in Translation” will enjoy seeing this relatively unknown side of a larger-than-life person who is actually anything but. However, for anyone who is too young to remember Bill Murray at the height of his popularity (mainly millennials), they are unlikely to be as interested.
Casting in the film is limited primarily to the ordinary people telling their stories, and the director himself. Aside from a brief appearance by one of the Farrelly Brothers, the director doesn’t include much in the way of celebrity interviews.I don’t know if that’s because the director didn’t want to include any of them, or if he just didn’t have the clout in Hollywood to get them to appear in his movie.When you get right down to it though, it would go completely against the whole meaning of the film to include too many stories by famous people. There’s nothing fantastical about a celebrity hanging out with another celebrity.
Overall, whether or not you have Netflix, this is definitely something worth checking out if you like Bill Murray. Some may not like the ending because it won’t be the one they want, but it is the one the film needed. Also, be sure to stick around all the way through for a great post-credits scene that I thought was more interesting than anything Marvel has ever done in their films.
