It's been only four short months since Houston- area fans of British boy band One Direction were able to see the objects of their affection live and in person. But Directioners already have another concert to look forward to — and this time more of them will be able to come, as the lads will play at Reliant Stadium on Aug. 22, 2014, as part of their Where We Are 2014 world tour.
1D will hit 45 different cities around the world, starting on April 25. Owing to their massive popularity, the 21-city North American leg of the tour will take place almost exclusively in football stadiums, including Dallas' AT&T Stadium on Aug. 24, El Paso's Sun Bowl Stadium on Sept. 19 and San Antonio's Alamodome on Sept. 21.
Few bands have climbed the ladder to success like One Direction has. It was a little more than three years ago when the quintet was teamed up by Simon Cowell on the British version of The X Factor. Although they somehow failed to win that reality competition, they've been winners in everything else since, selling more than 35 million albums and racking up hit songs like "What Makes You Beautiful," "Live While We're Young" and "Best Song Ever."
That last song was the lead single off their just-released third album, Midnight Memories, which is pretty much guaranteed to go straight to No. 1 like their first two albums did.
Tickets for the North American leg of the Where We Are 2014 world tour will go on sale to the general public on Saturday, Dec. 7, via LiveNation.com. Citi cardmembers can already buy pre-sale tickets through Citi's Private Pass® Program. Directioners can buy tickets starting Dec. 3 by signing up for a Facebook RSVP.
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.
