Film

St. Vincent

A deadpan comedy about an unlikely friendship between a lonely boy and his cranky, broke neighbour—a former soldier, gambler, and all-around disaster. Bill Murray delivers a masterclass in playing someone you shouldn't like but absolutely do. Funny, tender, never saccharine. For anyone who believes the best stories are about people fixing each other.

TMDb rating3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a grumpy-hearted comedy where the warmth arrives sideways, through rude jokes, stubborn bonds and a lead performance that stays mostly unsentimental until it doesn't.

Skip it if you want a snappy, plot-driven comedy, since this one drifts through its days at a lazy pace and leans on its characters' moods more than on any firm sense of where it is headed.

What it asks of you: It runs about 100 minutes and takes its time, settling into everyday scenes and small exchanges rather than building toward set pieces, so it rewards patience more than close attention.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Lost in Translation2003

Murray in another role about dislocation and connection—quieter than St. Vincent, but cut from the same cloth. A meditation on loneliness that lands harder than most films about loneliness ever do.

But Plotless and slow. If you need narrative momentum, this will feel like watching someone sit in a hotel room, because that's kind of the point.

Lost in Translation poster

Hunt for the Wilderpeople2016

A gruff older man and a kid on the run in the New Zealand bush. Taika Waititi finds comedy in the friction between them, but builds genuine affection underneath. Joyful without being sappy.

But The whimsy might feel a touch cutesy. The tone is so carefully balanced that a moment's inattention can make it seem precious rather than earned.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople poster

The Descendants2011

George Clooney as a privileged guy learning to be present for his daughters after his wife's stroke. Balances humour and heartbreak with real skill. About how people actually talk and fail to talk.

But Long stretches where nothing much happens. Hawaii looks beautiful but the characters are still unhappy, which some find depressing rather than moving.

The Descendants poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from St. Vincent

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Paterson2016

Both films about men who've stopped fighting the world, but one chooses rage and the other chooses acceptance. Paterson is what St. Vincent never let Vincent become.

A bus driver who writes poems. Nothing happens, repeatedly. Jim Jarmusch's love letter to routine, to noticing, to the quiet dignity of ordinary life. If you liked what Murray brings to St. Vincent, this is his opposite: contentment instead of bitterness.

But Adam Driver's Paterson is patient and gentle where Vincent is volatile. Some will find the gentleness boring. It's not a plot film—it's a mood, and moods aren't for everyone.

Paterson poster
More like this (8)

Moonlight2016

Three chapters of a Black gay man's life, told with devastating intimacy. Quiet, visually gorgeous, and structurally brilliant. About becoming yourself despite the world.

But Understated to the point of obliqueness. Some dialogue is delivered so softly you might miss it. Demands you meet it halfway.

Moonlight poster

Boyhood2014

Filmed over twelve years with the same actors. A boy grows up, nothing much happens, and somehow it becomes the most profound film about time and change you'll ever see.

But Three hours of deliberately flat incident. Zero plot. If you need something to happen every ten minutes, this will test you.

Boyhood poster

The Grand Budapest Hotel2014

Wes Anderson at his most precise and tender, about mentorship, loyalty, and the passage of time. Gorge Clooney and Ralph Fiennes as concierge and lobby boy. It's a heist film that cares about its people.

But So stylized and constructed it can feel like a diorama. Some find the artifice precious rather than charming.

The Grand Budapest Hotel poster

Nebraska2013

Bruce Dern and Will Forte as father and son on a road trip across the American heartland in black and white. Funny, sad, and absolutely unsentimental about family relationships.

But Shot in monochrome and glacially paced. The landscapes are beautiful but bleak. Dern's character is sometimes difficult to like.

Nebraska poster

The Shawshank Redemption1994

Two men in prison, one young and hopeful, one old and worn. About how people reach across damage and loneliness to touch each other. Morgan Freeman narrates. It's a masterpiece.

But You've probably seen it. It's been on cable since 2003. Hard to find a fresh angle on it now.

The Shawshank Redemption poster

The Pursuit of Happyness2006

Will Smith and his real son as a father and boy facing homelessness in 1980s San Francisco. Gritty and unsentimental about poverty, genuinely moving about love and survival.

But Leans toward inspiration-porn in the final act. Undercuts some of its own hardness by ending warm.

The Pursuit of Happyness poster

A Prophet2009

Both about a younger person learning from an older one who's been broken by life. A Prophet is what happens when that relationship doesn't warm, and the cost when a mentor's influence points the wrong way.

A nineteen-year-old enters prison illiterate and emerges transformed. A true story, French, brutally unsentimental about mentorship and corruption. The relationship between the boy and his older cellmate is as complex as anything in St. Vincent, but darker.

But Prison violence is not theatrical or comedic. It's matter-of-fact and disturbing. Not a feel-good film despite its theme of growth.

A Prophet poster

Ikiru1952

Both about an older man seemingly beyond salvation discovering he has someone to care about. But where St. Vincent is scrappy and modern, Ikiru is serene and tragic—the same moral engine in a completely different key.

Kurosawa's masterpiece about a dying bureaucrat who discovers meaning in his final months by helping others. Black and white, Japanese, made in 1952. About connection, mortality, and what actually matters. Devastatingly beautiful.

But It's meditative and mournful. Not a comfort film. Also—it's seventy years old, foreign, and requires patience. Some find subtitles tiring.

Ikiru poster

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