On the Rocks
A24 | Release Date: October 2, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
40
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinKaren GordonOct 1, 2020
On the Rocks is a delight. Read full review
100
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 23, 2020
What any of us wouldn’t give for a spontaneous night of rule breaking and lounge hopping with a genuine NY character, like Murray’s, again. Coppola’s funny and slyly emotional film, which should be cherished, is the closest we’ll get to that for a while. Read full review
95
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeSep 22, 2020
Jones and Murray (who previously teamed on Coppola’s “A Very Murray Christmas” special) achieve the kind of effortless rapport that spawns “I want them to go solve mysteries” memes, and the key ingredient of that chemistry is that Jones never allows Murray to steal the show. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 2, 2020
In the past, Coppola’s embrace of ambiguity could feel like a dodge, a way of evading meaning. But in On the Rocks, a wistful and lovely story about finally coming of age, there’s nothing ambiguous about how she makes us see a woman too long lost in life’s shadow. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 22, 2020
On the Rocks is very much a father-daughter two-hander — tender and personal, dryly funny and played to perfection by Jones and Murray. Its effortless touch shows the accomplished, genre-hopping Coppola continuing to expand her range. Read full review
88
The Associated PressLindsey BahrOct 2, 2020
On the Rocks is perhaps more conventional and modest than Coppola’s other films, but it’s no less entertaining or profound. Read full review
88
ABC NewsPeter TraversOct 2, 2020
Thanks to a master class in comic and dramatic nuance from Bill Murray and Rashida Jones as a father and daughter dealing with cross-generational infidelity, director Sofia Coppola turns a wispy premise into something funny, touching and vital. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 1, 2020
Jones and Murray are wonderful together; many of the best scenes in On the Rocks are when it’s just the two of them, verbally fencing. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comScout TafoyaSep 25, 2020
If you can look beyond the 90-minute runtime depriving this movie of a more satisfying conclusion, there is not simply “a lot to like,” there’s an embarrassment of riches crying out for perusal. On the Rocks is the kind of doodle only a truly skilled director could produce. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineChuck BowenSep 24, 2020
There are few modern filmmakers who possess Sofia Coppola’s gift for capturing how our idealized, movie-fed ideas of “night life” reflect our longing for adventure as well as our loneliness. Read full review
87
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpNov 12, 2020
Coppola pours sweet foam over a bitter cup. The heart of the film is darkness, the exterior exuberance, and taken together they make for piquant viewing. Read full review
83
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezOct 2, 2020
On The Rocks is almost like a Trojan Horse of intoxicating libations and magical evenings—Murray’s sporty ‘60s candy red Alfa Romeo convertible being the vehicle of these enjoyments— a capricious trick that belies the true nature of its thoughtful and feminine perspective on the difficulties of love, life, marriage, and complex fathers. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 22, 2020
It’s the first Sofia Coppola movie that feels — if only during its flattest stretches — as if it could have been made by somebody else, and yet at the same time it also plays like the loose and tipsy self-portrait of a maturing filmmaker being visited by the ghost of her greatest success. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekOct 23, 2020
There’s no tortured drama, no grand revelation. The movie is funny in the gentlest way, and how could it not be? Coppola’s script is built around Murray’s deadpan savoir faire, with Jones’ forthright radiance as a foil. Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard BrodyOct 20, 2020
The movie’s movingly confessional, even penitent look at private and public abuses of power is a glance askance at Hollywood mythologies, too. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellOct 7, 2020
Fundamentally, On the Rocks understands that the rich complexity of long-term relationships – both paternal and spousal – can never truly be captured, only gestured towards. The result, on screen, is deeply warm, funny and comforting, and among Coppola’s finest work. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeOct 6, 2020
A film that knowingly lifts riffs from screwball capers and melancholy romcoms alike, writing love letters to the city of New York as it swirls from one upmarket fairytale locale to the next. Read full review
80
BBCCaryn JamesOct 2, 2020
On the Rocks is practically a distillation of Coppola’s Lost in Translation style. Each scene is compact and feels lived in, without any urgent narrative drive. That elegant surface makes it seem like a trifle, but there are layers beneath. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatthew LeylandOct 2, 2020
Sofia, so good. Coppola takes Manhattan with a breezy, beautifully observed daddy-daughter portrait. Read full review
80
CNNBrian LowryOct 1, 2020
An entertaining, wonderfully simple comedy with the qualities of a smooth martini -- it goes down easy, but delivers a bit of kick. Read full review
80
EmpireTerri WhiteSep 23, 2020
Lighter and slighter than we may expect from Coppola, On The Rocks is an eminently charming, gorgeous portrait of a daughter, wife and mother finding her way back to herself via the streets of New York City. Read full review
80
Screen DailyStephen Whitty Sep 22, 2020
Spun mostly of sugar and air, this film is a lightweight, but mostly sweet, treat – and a lovely reminder of when pictures could just be low-key amusements, and the pandemic hadn’t yet turned cities into ghost towns. Read full review
80
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 22, 2020
On the Rocks turns into a boozy humanistic hang-out caper movie, one that’s light-spirited and compelling, mordantly alive to the ins and outs of marriage, and a winning showcase for Murray’s aging-like-fine-whisky brand of world-weary deviltry. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 1, 2020
On the Rocks is light-hearted and, ultimately, more a story about a girl and her father. The good and the bad of that parental legacy and the task of disentangling from it forms the subtext of On the Rocks. Read full review
75
The Film StageNick NewmanOct 3, 2020
A well-modulated vision of the fight against encroaching malaise or mere trifle dressing itself up? Depends on the scene. But trifles have their place and auteurs should be allowed their fun, which On the Rocks deploys over 90 minutes kind enough not to feel like a waste of anyone’s talents or time. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 2, 2020
It’s a seductive, amusing and beguiling turn, with perhaps an Oscar nomination in it. And it’s message is clear, to our director and her muse. When the persona becomes legend, play the legend. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSep 30, 2020
As for Murray, it’s just a shame he can’t make a Sofia Coppola movie every year. As in “Lost in Translation,” Coppola brings out all of Murray’s many colors, sometimes all at once — his flippancy, his authority, his warmth, his isolation, his expressiveness, his inability to say everything he wants to say. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenSep 30, 2020
Here and there, Coppola seems interested in poking that Murray persona. On the Rocks would have been much better if Murray had done some poking too. Read full review
75
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonSep 26, 2020
Coppola sends us on a light, frothy father/daughter adventure, to be sure, but one suffused with the tiny tragedies of misogyny, and the excuses men make for their selfish behavior. Even the sweetest dishes need a little salt to bring out its complexities, and On the Rocks is no exception. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 25, 2020
There’s something a little tidy about the resolution, closing a movie of messy emotional confusion on a note of affirmation and maybe even a kind of surrender. But On The Rocks shines brighter in the context of a career, especially in indirect dialogue with Lost In Translation. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattSep 23, 2020
The story itself, with its gorgeous interiors and jazzy Chet Baker soundtrack, turns out to be a bit of a wisp, a dandelion puff tossed to the gods of romance and prime Manhattan real estate. But if the emotional stakes never really seem all that crucial (love wins, in the end), Murray brings his own cosmic weight. Read full review
70
The AtlanticDavid SimsOct 21, 2020
This film is the slightest story Coppola has ever produced; it only brushes up against deeper insights during its brief running time. But the movie offers such a rush of unintentional catharsis and pure diversion that its flaws are easy to forgive. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsOct 8, 2020
It’s a little zany, a little blue, emotionally jagged, adventurously all over the place. If you’re a romantic, though, the movie’s inciting incident — the bomb that detonates all the problems to come — probably plays like something closer to a scene out of a horror movie. Read full review
70
SlashfilmHoai-Tran BuiOct 2, 2020
On the Rocks isn’t Coppola’s most momentous film — it’s a little too frothy, all crackle and no pop — but its near lackadaisical tone and a delightful Murray performance make it an entertaining watch. It goes down like a smooth glass of wine, with perhaps a little bit of tartness. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 2, 2020
On the Rocks is a funny film, warm for the most part except when it’s not — and needs not to be. Minor Murray, you might call it? And yes, you could say that he’s in effect just doing the kind of thing he always does, only more so. We wouldn’t have it any other way. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 1, 2020
The father-daughter relationship is often witty, a seduction that never ends, and sometimes exquisitely poignant, but both roles are burdened by a script that falls into disquisition on the larger subject of men and women. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreSep 30, 2020
On the Rocks isn’t a great movie, but it’s one overflowing with feelings that it tries to squash into something tidier. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 22, 2020
You see in Felix the deadpan anarchic streak that has made Murray a force in American comedy for decades. At the same time, the actor seems to be winking at his own reputation for off-screen mischief — the tricks, stunts and pop-up bartending gigs that have made him a kind of one-man flash mob. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 30, 2020
It’s an agreeable diversion. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzSep 28, 2020
So, if you must celebrate Bill Murray Day this year, pour yourself a Suntory Whisky and watch "Lost in Translation" instead. And make that drink neat. Read full review
60
UproxxMike RyanOct 2, 2020
On the Rocks is light on plot, but makes up for it with just the sheer joy of Murray and Jones out on the town. The actual plot is only there as an excuse to get the ball rolling for those two. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushMatt SingerSep 24, 2020
Felix isn’t On the Rocks’ main character, but he is its most interesting one, the one who seems to have the most to say and the most to hide; the one that writer/director Sofia Coppola gives her strongest comedic material and saddest monologues; the one who’s played by Bill Murray in yet another performance that feels so tossed off and yet so finely tuned Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 23, 2020
There may be no more fitting snack for a film that exudes casual bon-vivant allure, but is fundamentally nibbles and froth. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 30, 2020
Seeing what may be Coppola’s least compelling film has a way of reminding you of all her better ones, especially in the seriocomic vein. Those include the aforementioned “Lost in Translation,” along with “The Bling Ring,” “Somewhere,” even the playfully anachronistic “Marie Antoinette.” If they’re new to you, have at them. Read full review
50
Vanity FairRichard LawsonSep 24, 2020
The film never achieves lift-off, drifting instead through a series of scenes that repeat and repeat the movie’s few, basic themes before sputtering to a too easily resolved—and patly rendered—conclusion. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 22, 2020
There are some cheerfully amusing moments . . . . But really the banter and the elegance needs some substance in the script and it really isn’t here, or not enough of it, and the serious moments seem glazed in a kind of negligent unseriousness. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 6, 2020
Things happen in On the Rocks, but the caper-flick high jinks viewers expect to ensue never come to full, cockeyed fruition. Read full review
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