Fannish 50 - Movie Review - Ella McKay
Jan. 7th, 2026 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cmk418Can something be "Fannish 50" if you aren't a fan of it?
I wanted to see "Ella McKay" for a while because it was written & directed by James L Brooks, who wrote & directed one of my favorite films "Broadcast News".
This was not that. Not even close. It was billed as a comedy, but it wasn't all that funny. The one character that brought the humor- Ella's brother- was the bright spot of the film and his subplot was ok.
The film used a narrator- Julie Kavner (aka Marge Simpson)- and that was the first sign of trouble because the narrator kept telling us how we were supposed to feel about various things (and also how great Ella was.)
Ella was actually great as a politician (also pretty unrealistic as she actually wanted people in government to do something other than trying to get re-elected again.) and I wished they'd focused on that aspect of her life more than having all the nonsense with her awful dad and her equally awful husband. It just felt that Brooks tried to heap the misery on her by giving her a womanizing father, a weak mother who stayed with the man, a distant brother, a husband- her high school sweetheart- that she only married because he seemed to have a functional family. The best person in her life was her aunt- Jamie Lee Curtis, who was used for some comedic effect, but on the whole, fell flat.
I will say that the aunt-niece relationship was nice to see, just because it hasn't been used in a lot of films, but it didn't save this one.
Give me more female characters like Jane Craig and fewer like Ella McCay.
I wanted to see "Ella McKay" for a while because it was written & directed by James L Brooks, who wrote & directed one of my favorite films "Broadcast News".
This was not that. Not even close. It was billed as a comedy, but it wasn't all that funny. The one character that brought the humor- Ella's brother- was the bright spot of the film and his subplot was ok.
The film used a narrator- Julie Kavner (aka Marge Simpson)- and that was the first sign of trouble because the narrator kept telling us how we were supposed to feel about various things (and also how great Ella was.)
Ella was actually great as a politician (also pretty unrealistic as she actually wanted people in government to do something other than trying to get re-elected again.) and I wished they'd focused on that aspect of her life more than having all the nonsense with her awful dad and her equally awful husband. It just felt that Brooks tried to heap the misery on her by giving her a womanizing father, a weak mother who stayed with the man, a distant brother, a husband- her high school sweetheart- that she only married because he seemed to have a functional family. The best person in her life was her aunt- Jamie Lee Curtis, who was used for some comedic effect, but on the whole, fell flat.
I will say that the aunt-niece relationship was nice to see, just because it hasn't been used in a lot of films, but it didn't save this one.
Give me more female characters like Jane Craig and fewer like Ella McCay.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-08 07:27 pm (UTC)As to your other question - yes, I think that things you don't like can still be part of Fannish 50! Disliking things is just as important as liking things. It's a balance, for sure, but you can be a fan and not like everything an artist, author, director, whatever makes.
I think I lost the plot somewhere in that last comment though.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-09 03:06 am (UTC)No, it made sense. It's the yin & yang of fandom. There are some episodes of TV series that aren't great and no writer/director is perfect.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-09 09:14 pm (UTC)