"Ella McCay, a new comedy drama written and directed by James L Brooks, feels like a relic, and not just because it's set, seemingly arbitrarily, in 2008. Broadly appealing, well cast, neither strictly comic nor melodramatic, concerning ordinary people in non-IP circumstances, it's the type of mid-budget adult film that used to appear regularly in cinemas in the 90s and aughts, before the streaming wars devoured the market."
"I especially would like to say that Ella McCay is an admirable final salvo (or so) for Brooks, the 85-year-old writer/director/producer whose prolific career includes both iconic sitcoms (The Mary Tyler Moore show, Taxi and the Simpsons), and now-classic films (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and As Good As It Gets). Unfortunately, I cannot say any of that, as Ella McCay is, first and foremost, a mess — a clunky collection of incoherent characters and confounding plot"
Ella McCay is a broadly appealing, well-cast comedy-drama set, oddly, in 2008 and built like a 1990s–aughts mid-budget adult film. The story centers on a 34-year-old lieutenant governor character played by Emma Mackey and aims for lighthearted, realistic portraits of ordinary people. The film evokes nostalgia for smart, sentimental popcorn fare that balances decency and inconsistency in characters. James L. Brooks's long career raises expectations, but the movie collapses into a clumsy assortment of poorly connected characters and plot developments that repeatedly defy basic story logic, producing a messy, disappointing result.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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