Three Immovable Truths

Some things simply are. Lost in Translation is the best film ever made. Scarlett Johansson is the most beautiful woman alive. And Bill Murray is God—not a god, not godlike, not a cultural figure who invites reverential comparison. God. The whole project.

American author Robert Schnakenberg has written a biography titled The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray: A Critical Appreciation of the World’s Finest Actor, and that subtitle alone should be sufficient to transfer money from your account to his. The book covers Murray’s full arc—from Saturday Night Live through Ghostbusters, Garfield, and every strange turn in between—and promises photographs, anecdotes, and the kind of Murray quotes that feel less like celebrity quips and more like transmissions from somewhere considerably wiser.

I don’t need convincing. I just need it on my shelf. If you can read the words "critical appreciation of the world’s finest actor" in that specific context and feel nothing—if Bill Murray does not register for you as evidence of something beyond ordinary human capability—I have no advice for whatever it is you’re doing with your time.