Bill Murray’s Best Drama On Netflix That Changed His Career Forever
Although the last few years have seen the once legendary actor Bill Murray have a slight fall from grace after troubling accusations were launched against him, there’s no denying that the Ghostbusters franchise star has had a lengthy career of hits. But, it’s with his appearance in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation that his career would have a resurgence, nabbing acclaim from the awards circuit. Now streaming on Netflix, subscribers can check out the film that would change Murray’s career for the better.
Lost in Translation, which saw Bill Murray get his first Oscar nomination, is streaming on Netflix.
In Lost in Translation, Bill Murray stars as Bob Harris, an actor whose star is dwindling when he receives a gig to travel to Tokyo and film a Suntory whiskey commercial. Along the way, he meets Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), and the two strike up a close but unforeseen friendship. The film sees the duo getting closer as they deal with living in a foreign country and feeling alienated from the new culture they’ve been thrown into.
Along with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johnsson, Lost in Translation also stars Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris, Catherin Lambert, and Fumihiro Hayashi. A critically celebrated piece of cinema, Murray’s performance would go on to hail much acclaim, leading him to nab a Golden Globe, BAFTA, and many other awards. He was even up for the Academy Award for Best Actor, but the honor would end up going to Sean Penn for his work in Mystic River.
The film marks the first time that the Marie Antoinette director teamed up with Bill Murray as the duo would join forces again for the 2020 comedy-drama, On the Rocks, in which the actor starred opposite Rashida Jones. Before that, the pair worked together on the Netflix holiday special, A Very Murray Christmas.
A critically celebrated piece of cinema, Murray’s performance would go on to hail much acclaim, leading him to nab a Golden Globe, BAFTA, and many other awards. He was even up for the Academy Award for Best Actor, but the honor would end up going to Sean Penn for his work in Mystic River.
Bringing in $118.7 million at the global box office against its $4 million budget, Lost in Translation was a financial success. It was also a major hit with the critics as, previously noted, many hailed the title as one of the best of Bill Murray’s career, with the actor even saying that it went down as one of his finest performances. Likewise, Sofia Coppola’s vision behind the feature and the themes that she introduced were also a hit with audiences and critics alike.
Unfortunately for Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, and Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation would hit a rough patch with some who slammed it for the racial stereotyping of the people of Japan. From its depiction of the people to the culture, many of the criticisms were hurled at the film’s lack of understanding and its motive of trying to create laughs while putting the country down. Still, the title has managed to gain a dedicated following over the last two decades, with its arrival on Netflix sure to come as music to many fans’ ears.
Much like his career prior to Lost in Translation, Bill Murray enjoyed a fruitful abundance in the years since. The actor has gone on to perform in a slew of celebrated films, including Zombieland, The Monuments Men, The Greatest Beer Run Ever, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Along with pairing up with Sofia Coppola on several projects, the Caddyshack star can’t seem to shake his other frequent collaborator, Wes Anderson.
Bill Murray And Wes Anderson
Over the years, Wes Anderson and Bill Murray have joined forces on productions including Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and more. However, Murray was missing from Anderson’s latest feature, Asteroid City, which featured his Lost in Translation co-star, Scarlett Johansson, in a leading role. Although Anderson has come out in support of his friend in light of the negative allegations against him, it would appear that, for the time being, he’s taking a break from casting him in any of his features.
As for those claims, Bill Murray has long been known by some as a difficult actor to work with, with Lucy Liu speaking about her negative experience with him all the way back in 2000’s Charlie’s Angels. Since then, stars like Geena Davis and Seth Green have stepped forward to speak about their own traumatizing times on and off set with the Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties star. Also troubling have been a handful of “inappropriate misconduct” allegations made against him by a female crew member during the production of Being Mortal.
Despite the upsetting allegations against one of the world’s biggest superstars, there’s no doubt that Bill Murray’s fanbase will be rushing to Netflix to check out Lost in Translation while it’s on the platform.
