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Ella McCay is one of those annoying fumbles because while it really does not work, it's also not nearly bad enough to get angry or fail in interesting enough ways that the slow-motion trainwreck is interesting to watch.
Posted in: 20th Century Studios, Kaitlyn Booth, Movies, Review | Tagged: ella mccay
Ella McCay Review: A Political Comedy With Nothing Relevant To Say
Ella McCay is one of those annoying fumbles because while it really does not work, it's also not nearly bad enough to get angry or fail in interesting enough ways that the slow-motion trainwreck is interesting to watch.
Article Summary
- Ella McCay struggles to find relevance, feeling out of touch with today’s political landscape.
- The script lacks political bite or authentic character moments, leading to unconvincing drama and comedy.
- Emma Mackey’s talents are underutilized as the title character is given little agency or interesting material.
- James L. Brooks’s political comedy lands flat, failing to deliver laughs, insight, or compelling drama.
Ella McCay feels like it was written for a different political environment; everything about it feels out of touch, which undercuts any message it might be trying to portray, while the characters act utterly inhuman.
Director: James L. Brooks
Summary: An idealistic young woman juggles her family and work life in a comedy about the people you love and how to survive them.
If you told me that the script for Ella McCay was a decade or more older, something that was on the blacklist and is just making its way to the big screen after sitting on the shelf for many years, I'd believe you. It's a film set in 2008, right before Obama took office, and it reads like someone who looked at that time in history and assumed that the trials and tribulations of that period must apply to the global crisis we are facing today. While the parallels might exist in the sense that everyone was broke as a joke then and now, you might be right, but that surface-level observation is all you get. There was a level of optimism at the end of 2008 because Obama was elected, and people thought that things were about to get better. That sense of optimism and belief in government bodies is a significant part of the film, and as someone living in 2025, it becomes both laughable and infuriating to watch.
Aside from the idea of belief in government structure and optimism for the future to be better, which feels like science fiction in this day and age, Ella McCay has a female main character, and her name is the title of the entire film. However, Ella has absolutely zero agency. As the events of the film unfold, the people around her make decisions and push her along. If anyone in this film was acting like an actual person, it might read as some sort of commentary on how women in political spaces are often used as mouthpieces without much to say on their own, but the script isn't giving anyone a chance to act like a human being. It leads to some truly strange interactions, character beats, plot points, and a narration tool that takes the idea of "tell, not show" to its logical extreme.
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- Emma Mackey as Ella McCay in 20th Century Studios' ELLA MCCAY. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
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- (L-R) Jamie Lee Curtis as Helen and Emma Mackey as Ella McCay 20th Century Studios' ELLA MCCAY. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
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- (L-R) Julie Kavner as Estelle and Jack Lowden as Ryan in 20th Century Studios' ELLA MCCAY. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
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- (L-R) Ayo Edebiri as Susan in 20th Century Studios' ELLA MCCAY. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Nobody in this movie behaves like a human being, which might work if it were pushed further or if any of the comedy beats landed, but there isn't anything here that really works. There are a few moments throughout Ella McCay where you might chuckle, but none of that comes from the writing and instead is the byproduct of having some incredibly talented actors doing their damnedest to make this film into something. It's fascinating how unfunny and politically irrelevant this film is because James L. Brooks is an excellent writer, and the idea of a comedy drama within the political sphere should have been a cakewalk. Instead, either he under- or overthought the concept, and everything fell apart.
You can see Emma Mackey's potential trying to shine through, but the movie, titled Ella McCay, won't give the character anything interesting to do, so that potential remains unfulfilled. This likely seemed like a role that would be a stepping stone, but it's not going to be that at all. The good news is that this film has no idea what audience it is trying to court, so no one will see it, and by Monday, no one will remember it exists.
Ella McCay is one of those annoying fumbles because while it really does not work, it's also not nearly bad enough to get angry about or fail in interesting enough ways that the slow-motion trainwreck is interesting to watch. The script is the problem, full stop, and it really shows here. Perhaps there was a chance this could have found an audience on Hulu. But this, of all films getting a theatrical release, is bizarre because this is the sort of coalition of flaws made for the streaming dumping ground. Ultimately, Ella McCay is not funny enough to be a comedy, it's not politically biting enough to be relevant either for the politics of its time or now, the plot and character interactions aren't interesting enough to be a drama, and it doesn't fail in any way that is interesting to discuss.
Ella McCay
3/10
Ella McCay is one of those annoying fumbles because while it really does not work, it's also not nearly bad enough to get angry or fail in interesting enough ways that the slow-motion trainwreck is interesting to watch.
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