Prepping to drop her highly anticipated new album, Special, Houston-born Lizzo will present a planetarium-esque light show experience, appropriately dubbed Lizzoverse and an exclusive album playback performance on Friday, July 15 that will be livestreamed for fans.
Local Lizzo fans can stream the July 15 performance/event at 5 pm (CST) via the Amazon Music channel; find it here.
Following the July 15 performance, Lizzosphere — produced by Superfly — kicks off a series of public light shows from July 16 to July 17 at New York City’s landmark Cipriani 25 Broadway.
For those who can’t get enough of the “Good As Hell” star, Lizzo will debut an exclusive five piece, size-inclusive collection on Monday, July 18 that features playful, bright, graphic hoodies, and tees with familiar Lizzo sayings. A selection of vinyl, CDs, and cassettes will also be available for purchase.
As her fans know, Special includes the instant hit and worldwide smash “About Damn Time,” which is currently No. 2 on Billboard’s “Hot 100” and No. 1 on Top 40 radio airplay charts. The single has blown up on TikTok with over 3.5M creates, hitting TikTok’s No. 1 overall sound in the U.S.
“About Damn Time” might end up as Lizzo’s highest streaming song thus far. The tune marks Lizzo’s fourth Top 10, Hot 100 hit, following “Truth Hurts” (which spent seven weeks at No. 1), the singalong “Good As Hell,” and “Rumors (with hot girl Cardi B). The Houston native/flautist/superstar boasts three Grammy Awards and multiple platinum certifications.
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.
