2. Get Low (2009)
Sony Pictures Classics
Frank: I sold twenty-six of the ugliest cars in the middle of December with the wind blowing so far up my ass I was farting snowflakes into July. If you think theres something unusual about the way Get Low looks its because its shot digitally, something which most will agree does the Western film no favours whatsoever. The reason its pertinent, though, is that digital film is cheaper and more versatile and has thus become synonymous with lower budget films. Get Low is the epitome of independent film drifting somewhere between drama, comedy and folk tale and tells the story of a grouchy old man (Robert Duvall) who hires undertaker Frank Quinn (Murray) to prepare his living funeral. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp_sSPJp1oE Not much more than that happens but its nonetheless truly captivating viewing, if not for anything other than the repartee between cinematic stalwarts Bill Murray, Robert Duvall, and Sissy Spacek. The role signifies the shift Murray has made towards not only more dramatic roles but more adventurous, riskier, and ultimately fringe filmmaking he has come to make almost exclusively in the past few years. Murray is no longer at the centre of the action but much like the earlier Tootsie pops up every now and then with a comic aside in that knowing, glassy-eyed look of his.