Vincent is a man with a questionable past.
He’s got money. Connections. A secluded winter home in the forests of Maine. How exactly he came into possession of those things is a bit of a mystery. The type of mystery that you probably wouldn’t want to know the answers to.
Yes, Vincent has a questionable past. But, in his mind, he’s also got a certain future. He adores his wife, Sandy, 20 years his junior. His stepson, DJ, is an intelligent and considerate young man who will soon head off to college. They are a happy, healthy and wholesome family.
That is, until Vincent’s first family shows up. His biological son Rocco arrives with his very pregnant girlfriend, Marina; and his chaotic mother, Ruth, Vincent’s ex-wife. Rocco claims he only stopped by to celebrate the New Year as a family, and to tell Vincent that the older man was going to be a grandfather. But, as Vincent suspects, there’s more to it than that.
Vincent’s right. And that’s when his carefully manicured life starts to get messy.
See, Rocco killed a man. And not just any man. He killed the only son of mobster “Lefty” Hannigan. Sure, Lefty’s son attacked Marina, and Rocco only killed him to save her. But Lefty doesn’t care. He wants revenge. And he and his righthand hitman are hot on Rocco’s trail.
Rocco and Marina need to disappear. Sandy and DJ need to be protected. And Ruth—well, Ruth—she’s enough trouble on her own. So, what will Vincent do for family?
Though DJ isn’t Vincent’s biological son, he loves him like his own. He gives DJ some honest, heartfelt advice and tries to encourage him after a breakup. He also professes his love and admiration for Sandy. When he learns of Rocco’s trouble, he’s willing to give his son a large sum of money to escape from Lefty (even though his motives aren’t entirely selfless). Vincent is willing to sacrifice himself to save certain family members.
Rocco and Marina are thrilled about her pregnancy and look forward to being parents. In a flashback, we see Rocco rescue and care for an injured animal. DJ is polite and forgiving.
Marina wears a cross necklace in one scene. A shopkeeper tells patrons “Merry Christmas.” Ruth makes a profane comment using the term “holy matrimony.”
Riff Raff doesn’t shy away from sexual content, some of which gets fairly explicit. We hear the sounds of one couple having sex followed by the sights of another—including a glimpse of a woman’s breast and suggestive movements. Ruth makes several sexually charged comments, including some regarding the anatomies of a few different men. She gropes Vincent and tries to get him to sleep with her, even though he is now married to Sandy. (He refuses her advances.) She talks about Rocco’s failure to use contraception, which led to Marina’s pregnancy.
DJ shares that he and his ex-girlfriend “have done stuff” but never did the “major stuff.” He views sex and romance from a scientific perspective, leading to a few awkward conversations, including one about female sexual pleasure as a development of Darwinian evolution. Rocco tells DJ the story of how he met Marina, which begins with Rocco getting hot and heavy with another woman before they are interrupted.
We learn that before Rocco, Marina was in a relationship with Lefty’s son, Johnny. Johnny speaks crudely of his relationship with Marina and tells Rocco he’s currently in a relationship with five different women. Lefty tells Johnny that it’s “hard to keep track of your girls.” Rocco and Marina flirt, kiss and talk about fooling around. They snuggle together in bed.
Sandy and Marina reminisce about the first kisses with Vincent and Rocco, respectively. Rocco asks DJ his preference for female anatomical features, which prompts DJ to want to do “his own research later.” A man discovers he is infertile and cannot have children of his own. When he shares this with his father, the father is confused and asks if it’s a “homo thing.” A crude reference is made to oral sex. Someone talks about getting “laid.” Women wear tops that show a lot of cleavage, and we see others in their underwear. We hear that a boy’s biological father was sleeping with other women.
We also learn that DJ played the character of Wendy in an all-boys school production of Peter Pan, which causes him embarrassment when others bring it up.
The film is billed as a comedy, and it hopes (in part) to elicit guffaws from its bloody antics. People are shot, stabbed and clubbed throughout Riff Raff, with the sight and squelch of blood accompanying most of that violence.
A family is held at gunpoint. A few people are taken outside to be executed. Someone threatens to kill a child. Another man asks for permission to torture someone for a previous slight. One person is given a grim ultimatum—kill one family member to save another. Lefty shoots a shopkeeper, and we see blood and other bits splatter on the window behind him. Johnny attacks Marina, potentially with the intent to rape her. He also threatens both Marina and her unborn child with a gun. Rocco fights Johnny and ends up beating the man to death. We see his bloodied face. After an irritating encounter with a nosy suburbanite couple, Lefty orders his partner, Lonnie, to murder them. Lonnie obliges, though the deaths are offscreen.
Ruth recounts a concerning story (which is played for laughs) that seems to indicate she was drugged and raped. We see her first encounter with a young DJ, when she threatened him so that he’d leave her alone. A young woman falls from a flight of stairs, smashing her nose and bleeding profusely. Someone runs from a group of cops, and they chase him down and tackle him.
We learn that someone’s father was killed accidentally, and this his death was made to look like a car accident. A mobster threatens to cut out someone’s eye. A few people talk about shooting themselves. A man gives his girlfriend a gun and tells her how to use it. A boy aims a gun at a chipmunk but does not pull the trigger.
The language in Riff Raff is harsh and constant. More than 120 f-words are heard. There are 20-plus uses of the s-word. Jesus’ and God’s names are abused more than 10 times each, once paired with “d—.” We also hear “d—,” “h—,” “p-ss,” “a–” and “a–hole,” “son of a b—h” and “b–tard.” There are several crude slang terms used for both male and female anatomical parts. A woman says a man’s name is “f-ggy.”
We also hear uses of “crap” and “heck.”
Ruth pours a flask of alcohol into her coffee. She talks about being drugged. Later, Rocco gives her a joint; and when she asks him to get high with her, he accepts her offer. Vincent gives his underage son a beer and drinks with him. People smoke cigarettes and cigars. Someone mentions sambuca, an Italian liqueur. Men and women imbibe in beer, wine and whiskey.
A song talks about going to a bar and drinking wine to excess.
While Vincent clearly cares about Sandy and DJ, he essentially cut Ruth and Rocco out of his life. We are told that Vincent walked out on them years earlier, which left a young Rocco with a lot of guilt, thinking he was the reason his father left. When Vincent learns that Rocco and Marina are going to have a child, he doesn’t even bother to ask if the baby will be a boy or girl. This disappoints Rocco, who laments that he keeps thinking Vincent will act “like a normal father should.”
Ruth snoops around Vincent and Sandy’s house and steals some of Sandy’s beauty products. The first time Rocco and Marina met, she picked the lock on his handcuffs so he could avoid arrest. People break into a house.
Several characters talk about using the bathroom. We see one woman on the toilet—though nothing critical is shown. A bidet is mentioned. A woman says her father would treat the women in his life poorly.
Someone talks about his depression.
What would you do for family?
That’s the big question presented by Riff Raff. We get to see the film’s characters respond to that question in different ways. But in the end, it all leads to violence.
Vincent cares for and protects his family … at least, one family. Beyond Sandy and DJ, it seems he would prefer that his earlier, messier kin simply did not exist. He reluctantly agrees to shelter Rocco, Marina and Ruth, but it’s clear he feels they’re complicating his “new and better” life. It’s an interesting dichotomy, to see how a man can be a good husband and father to one family but callously walk out on another.
Rocco and Lefty are willing to kill for their families. Rocco, to protect Marina and to keep their unborn child from harm. Lefty, to avenge the death of his only son and a legacy that will outlive him. Having a son, Lefty says, is the only way a man gets to live forever. And he’ll happily kill the man who took that from him, justified or not.
There’s a message here about how families aren’t always clean and tidy. They can be stressful. Full of hurt. They’re made up of real people, after all, and real people have flaws. But despite the messiness, family is forever. And that means something.
Unfortunately, that message is overwhelmed by a rabble of bloody violence, explicit sexual content and harsh dialogue. With all that in mind, families will most likely want to leave Riff Raff out by the curb.
Bret loves a good story—be it a movie, show, or video game—and enjoys geeking out about things like plot and story structure. He has a blast reading and writing fiction and has penned several short stories and screenplays. He and his wife love to kayak the many beautiful Colorado lakes with their dog.
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