Dito Montel’s “Riff Raff” is a ragbag of a movie that never takes itself too seriously. There’s A-list talent on hand and an overriding conviviality of tone, along with suspense that is genuine and laughs that are earned. Mr. Montel’s shaggy dog story has parameters that are familiar but, hey, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes.

One better way to spend that time could be to seek out a few of this film’s inspirations, especially David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence” (2005). The casting of Ed Harris, who was also in the Cronenberg picture, can’t be coincidental, and “Riff Raff” has a rakish air to it, a light-limbed insouciance. It’s not that Mr. Montel, who worked from a script by playwright John Pollono, has made a parody of a gangster film, but the conventions of the genre are given a spin that is more tongue-in-cheek than not.