{"id":190406,"date":"2025-12-18T18:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T18:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/190406\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T18:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T18:34:13","slug":"veteran-filmmaker-wide-of-the-mark-in-dated-political-comedy-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/190406\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran filmmaker wide of the mark in dated political comedy drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

Review by<\/p>\n

Sarah Watt<\/a><\/p>\n

Film reviewer\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7<\/p>\n

18 Dec, 2025 04:58 PM2 mins to read<\/p>\n

Sarah reviewed for the Sunday Star Times until 2019. After a career change to secondary school teaching, she now she works in alternative education with our most disadvantaged rangatahi.<\/p>\n

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She\u2019s going to make it after all: Emma Mackey as Governor Ella McCay. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Ella McCay, directed by James L Brooks, is in cinemas now<\/p>\n

\n Among Hollywood\u2019s still-active directing octogenarians \u2013 Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott \u2013 85-year-old James L Brooks might look like yesterday\u2019s man. Ella McCay, his first film as director in 15 years after How Do You Know?, certainly
\n confirms it. If the film feels stuck in the past, it\u2019s set there, too. Its story of a young female politician and her colourful family being thrust into the spotlight takes place in a pre-Obama, recession-hit America of 2008.\n <\/p>\n

The director of Terms of Endearment (which won him three Oscars in 1983) and Broadcast News (seven nominations in 1988), still had it by the late 90s with the Jack Nicholson-led As Good As It Gets. The co-creator of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-offs, as well as Taxi, Brooks remains the producer of TV phenomenon The Simpsons and the 2007 The Simpsons Movie, his biggest box office hit. In this new film, he\u2019s cast Marge\u2019s voice actor, Julie Kavner, as secretary Estelle and the film\u2019s unnecessary narrator.<\/p>\n

But Brooks\u2019 big comedy-drama about the titular newbie US governor trying to save the world and survive her family, is neither funny nor dramatic and her political aims are mostly treated as idealistic and exhausting.<\/p>\n

Thirty-something McCay is played by lovely 29-year-old British-French actor Emma Mackey (Sex Education) in what should be her big Hollywood break. Her character is thrust from lieutenant-governor of a fictional state into the top job when the incumbent (Albert Brooks, Broadcast News) departs. Ella must juggle her new responsibilities with the needs of self-involved husband Ryan (Jack Lowden, Slow Horses) and other familial distractions.<\/p>\n

The old-fashioned story involves divorcing parents, a too-smart teenager, and a cute but weird little brother, while a feisty Aunt Helen (played by go-to feisty relative Jamie Lee Curtis) is there to provide punchlines and homespun advice. But if there was an ensemble prize for most acting this award season, then the Ella McCay cast would be a contender, helped by an annoying Woody Harrelson as McCay\u2019s estranged dad.<\/p>\n

In fairness, they are working from a Brooks script that is as duff as Homer\u2019s favourite brew. No, they don\u2019t make movies like this any more. And with good reason. <\/p>\n

Rating out of five: \u2605\u00bd<\/p>\n

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