There's been a war a-brewin' in late night comedy ever since the Conan O'Brien/Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert fight that invaded their respective shows over who "made" Mike Huckabee. This dustup first stirred up the airwaves in early 2008.
And with O'Brien's return to New York with his "Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television" tour, the three titans of late night cable comedy got into it again this week.
Colbert first showed up onstage to mock O'Brien's ill-fated departure from New York, with a series of barbs ("Does Kathie Lee know you're ripping off her act?") that led to — you guessed it — a dance-off.
To the sounds of Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me," Colbert appeared to rout O'Brien, until a pulled hamstring had him down for the count. Cue Jon Stewart, emerging in a red shirt, gold sequins, and shiny black pants to defend the honor of "the basic cable boys."
After trading insults — O'Brien said Jon Stewart looked like a Mexican waiter, Stewart told O'Brien "you look like a black light poster I had in college of a spooky tree" — the dance-off continued until Andy Richter emerged ... with a gun.
And if this wasn't enough, the sold-out crowd at Radio City Music Hall also got guest appearances by Paul Rudd, The Office's John Krasinski, SNL's Bill Hader and a performance by Vampire Weekend.
While this does make us extra sad Conan didn't bring his legally-prohibited funny tour to Houston, it does get us pumped for his TBS show, which is set to debut in November.
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.
