One of the last things you’d expect a director to be influenced by is the hardcore scene, yet that is exactly what inspired Riff Raff director Dito Montiel.
Powering onto the scene in 2006 with his book-turned-movie A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints starring Robert Downey Jr., Montiel has proven that he can handle anything. From playing in hardcore bands to boxing to modeling for Versace and Calvin Klein, it seems like there is little he can’t do—and probably much more he wants to do.
Speaking to The Mary Sue from Rome, Montiel was kind enough to let us pick his brain about his upcoming film, his past bands, and how he learned about Jennifer Coolidge. He is a thoughtful director who goes with the flow but knows exactly how he wants things to run.
Montiel credits Ed Harris, who was an advisor during his time with Sundance Labs and stars in the film, as the reason Riff Raff got made after sending him the script. The director admitted that it seemed like it would be impossible to make and that “they always seem impossible to make.” Really, Montiel is just happy that the film turned out the way he wanted it to. That is no easy feat for a filmmaker.
The perfect fit
Riff Raff, which premiered at TIFF in 2024, follows the story of Vincent (Ed Harris), a former criminal who is thrown back into turmoil when his old family, Leftie and Lonnie (Bill Murray, Pete Davidson), as well as his ex-wife, Ruth (Jennifer Coolidge), reappear. It puts his current family, Sandy (Gabrielle Union), Rocco (Lewis Pullman), and DJ (Miles J. Harvey), at risk.
An inspiration for the script that Montiel kept going back to was Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, only, in his words, “Everybody’s Virginia Woolf.” The family is an incredibly dysfunctional one, and much of the film is mired in their conflicts.
Originally, the film had a somewhat different cast, including Dustin Hoffman and Brian Cox. When asked about it, Montiel said, “[W]hen you have, like, people who are originally supposed to be in the movie that then, you know, get replaced for whatever reason … I really I don’t get into that whole voodoo of ‘things fall into place,’ but somehow for this one, it did.”
Of course, we can’t forget how Coolidge fits into the family dynamics in the first place. Shockingly, Montiel had never heard of the American Pie star before watching The White Lotus (Coolidge had a starring role in seasons 1 and 2).
“I was sitting watching White Lotus. I had never heard of Jennifer Coolidge. I’m the last person there to not know who she is,” he said wryly. However, once he’d seen her, he knew she would be the right fit for the role.”It’s gotta be her,” he said. “She has to do this role.”
Hardcore music saved the day
On the music in the film, Montiel went back to his hardcore roots to balance the film’s limited budget.
“My friend, Jesse Mallon, he was in a hardcore band called Heart Attack and he sent me his song,” he said. “And I remember I was thinking, this is only gonna work if we have a good song. And, of course, I had a Bob Dylan song that would have blown the entire budget of this movie out the window. And Jesse sent me his song, and I loved it. And I was like, okay. Now that scene’s gonna work because we have Jesse’s song in it.”
It would have been so interesting to see how the Bob Dylan song would have landed, but we do promise that the music in this film really is worth it.
“I had hoped that that weird tone of this film would come through, and I think it did,” he said.
Riff Raff is in theaters now.
Published: Feb 28, 2025 10:03 am