The Bill Murray Experience Image

The Bill Murray Experience

By Bradley Gibson | January 16, 2018

The Bill Murray Experience is really the Sadie Katz experience. Sadie Katz spent a year trying to track down Bill Murray so that she could have a spontaneous moment with him, as she’d seen on social media. If that sounds crazy to you then you just passed your mental health check for today.

This is not a film so much as an extended video blog entry. Katz documents how during a difficult moment in her life she tracked (stalked is the wrong word, maybe?) Murray and even cornered a family member (Joel Murray) to try to get close to Bill. Initially she has girlfriends with her but they quickly bail when they see how far she’s willing and driven to take it.

“…not a film so much as an extended video blog entry.”

Two positives: the music is good and the interview with P.J. Soles is a lot of fun, I love Stripes and she’s charming. I found it rude, but understandable, that Katz was only interested in what Soles could say about Murray. Katz did the same with Murray’s brother Joel, who handled it gracefully and humored her gently. 

What would happen if the roles were reversed? What if Katz was famous and a 67 year old male fan followed her around for a year, hung around her sets, and pestered her family members and friends trying to meet her? That documentary would be called The Restraining Order Experience.

“Movies aren’t meant to make you feel bad for the filmmaker, but this one does…”

Movies aren’t meant to make you feel bad for the filmmaker, but this one does. Obsession burns brightly in Katz’s eyes as she chokes up talking about wanting to meet celebrity Bill Murray. When she reveals that at one point during the year she checked herself into UCLA Medical Center for exhaustion it will just make you feel sad for her. 

Watch the trailer and then if you want to spend the 80 minutes it’s on you.

The Bill Murray Experience (2017) Directed by Sadie Katz. Starring Sadie Katz, P.J. Soles, Joel Murray.

3 out of 10

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  1. Phillip O'Brien says:

    I don’t mean to be mean…but Sadie is beautiful and I think that she just covets the screen time. She is beautiful and hopefully her acting career takes off but this just seems like a vehicle for her to be a movie star. It doesn’t matter what the supposed subject of the film is. Bill Murray? I think that he is great to but I don’t buy the obsession. This is beautiful Sadie’s movie. Hopefully she becomes a big movie star.

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