With castmember Maya Rudolph returning this weekend to host Saturday Night Live, many predicted she'd bring back her Whitney Houston impression for one last hurrah. Fortunately for everyone, she didn't (seriously, too soon) although Rudolph did dust off her versions of Maya Angelou and Michelle Obama.
But her most hilarious celebrity impression of the night was Beyoncé.
Rudolph's Bey and Jay Pharoah as Jay-Z (a reminder that an impression can be accurate and also boring) have a white butler they call "white butler," let Blue Ivy sleep in a crib lined with "one of Diana Ross's finest wigs" and in Beyoncé's case, at least, always have on a fringed, sequined silver dress under a robe. (I guess Sasha Fierce gets dressed first.)
While a wavy blonde wig and a sparkly dress are the basics for any Beyoncé, Rudolph mostly played the foil for the other weird characters parading through their home: Taylor Swift making her surprised face, Prince giving Blue Ivy "a smirk," Angelina Jolie trying to take the baby home and Justin Timberlake as Bon Iver putting himself to sleep with a lullaby.
Actually, Justin Timberlake's appearance reminded me of the last time Beyoncé made an SNL appearance: The super-viral sketch where Timberlake and two other guys act as (the real) Beyoncé's back-up dancers in the "Single Ladies" video.
Does Maya's version measure up, or do you think Beyoncé is funnier when she's playing herself?
The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.
The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).
Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.
Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).
Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.
What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.
Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.
Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.
