Ella McCay (20th Century, 12.25) is obviously a hot mess, but I still want to see it for the usual nostalgia reasons….I’ll always be a serious die-hard fan of the great Brooks films of the ’80s and ’90s (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets)…all brilliant, incisive, emotional empathy scenarios that wrestled with real-life adult stuff, and in a way that really and truly touched the bottom of the pool. And something inside me wants to return to that place.
I know deep down that the old Brooks film vibes are gone with the wind and that none of us can go home again, and that I’m dreaming. I know this, I know this.
If only the not-hot-enough Ayo Edibiri wasn’t playing the younger brother’s (Spike Fearns) girlfriend. Just remove Fearns and Edibiri from the finished cut and everything will be greatly improved.
Posted on 8.4.25: I’m really and truly sorry, but the just-popped trailer for James L. Brooks‘ Ella McCay (20th Century, 12.12) feels decidedly off in certain ways.
And I’m saying this as a serious die-hard fan of the great Brooks films of the ’80s and ’90s (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets).
I’m sorry but there’s just something what-the-fucky about the simultaneous mixture of the following:
(a) A neurotic, emotionally truculent family dramedy about 40-plus adults (one significant exception being the titular character) dealing with unresolved failings and repressed anger plus an anguished, darkly humored tolerance of same;
(b) The film seemingly or primarily leaning upon a trusting mother-daughter relationship…the high-strung, emotionally fraught central character — a driven, pushing-30 political careerist — played by Emma Mackey plus the stalwart, silver-haired, mid-60ish Jamie Lee Curtis;
(c) The name of the titular character sharing the same kind of WASPy ethnicity, the same initials and the same number of syllables as Mackey…Ella McCay is apparently a non-elected colleague of some kind …some kind of managerial, high-level ally of “Governor Bill” (the white-haired Albert Brooks) who’s somehow taking over as governor when “Bill” has to leave office for some unspecified reason (poor health? sexual malfeasance?), plus…
(d) The principal offender being a selfish, stubbornly immature, moderately deplorable older male played by the 60ish Woody Harrelson, the father of Mackey’s McCay.
Plus the profoundly irksome Ayo Edibiri…forget it, not going there.
What the hell is this, man?
I’m good with the punchy, soul-baring family turbulence stuff but we all understand that lieutenant governors succeed governors when a resignation occurs, and not a trusted colleague or political manager or protector in the tradition of, say, who Rahm Emmanuel was while serving Barack Obama during the first couple of years of that adminstration.
Principal photography, mind, began in Rhode Island on 2.1.24, and it wrapped three months later on 5.3.24, and yet extensive additional filming began eight months later (i.e., January through March 2025), not just in Rhode Island but also in Cleveland and New Orleans. What does that tell you?
In March ’25 Julie Kavner, Becky Ann Baker and Joey Brooks (the director’s son) were revealed to be cast additions.
In the trailer the long-of-tooth Kavner, portraying a longtime assistant of McCay, self-announces as the film’s narrator, which indicates that Brooks decided that the movie needed a narrator during the early ’25 extra-filming period, which is always a sign of trouble.
“Brooks Back on Horse,” posted on 11.21.23, or roughly two years ago: Deadline‘s Justin Kroll is reporting that James L. Brooks is planning to direct a new feature — his first since 2010’s How Do You Know, which unfortunately didn’t work out.
The Brooks project is called Ella McCay, and it sounds like some kind of West Wing-y type deal but…uhm, set in a governor’s mansion? Politics mixed with a relationship current, I’m presuming, Brooks being Brooks.
The titular role will be played by 27 year-old Emma Mackey (Emma, Death on the Nile), whom HE approves of on a primal attraction level. The costars are Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson and Albert Brooks. 20th Century Studios will distribute.
Kroll: “The film will follow an idealistic young politician (Mackey) who juggles familial issues and a challenging work life while preparing to take over the job of her mentor, the state’s longtime incumbent governor.”
Take over the governorship at age 30 or thereabouts? How would that work exactly? Maybe the plot will have Mackey secretly take over a la Edith Wilson after Governor Harrelson falls ill. Maybe she’ll assume power after Albert Brooks’ governor is brought down by a sexual scandal (i.e., New York State’s Kathy Hochul taking the reins after Andrew Cuomo was torpedoed)…something like that.
Brooks’ heyday happened during the ’70s on television (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi), and in features during the late ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Nobody was more in love with the Brooks brand than myself. Then again Brooks has been out of the game for 14 years, and his last film was a bust, and he’s now 83.
When you boil it all down, Brooks’ feature film rep rests upon four really good feature films — 1979’s Starting Over (which he wrote and co-produced along with director Alan Pakula), 1983’s Terms of Endearment, 1987’s Broadcast News and 1997’s As Good as It Gets. But really three as Pakula was in command of that Burt Reynolds-Jill Clayburgh romcom.
Brooks’ I’ll Do Anything (’94) was a disaster, and Spanglish (’04) didn’t pan out either. On the other hand he produced Big (’88), The War of the Roses (’89), Jerry Maguire (’96), Riding in Cars with Boys (’01), The Edge of Seventeen (’16) and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (’23). Brooks also exec produced Say Anything… (’89) and Bottle Rocket (’96).