Ella McCay – Movie Review
James L. Brooks is a staple of film and television, with his accolades including co-creating The Simpsons and winning three Academy Awards for iconic dramedies such as Terms of Endearment and As Good as it Gets. Even after a 15 year absence from the silver screen after the more maligned How Do You Know? (also the last appearance on the silver screen for Jack Nicholson), there was a buzz of anticipation for his latest star-studded affair, Ella McCay. But this tonally bizarre and wildly disjointed new comedy suggests that perhaps Brooks should have left the sleeping cinematic lion lying.
Set in 2008, Emma Mackey plays the titular character who is the current lieutenant governor of her unnamed state. Opportunistic, determined and idealistic, Ella strives to make significant change in her role, despite the constant push back from her own government. Outside of work, Ella must deal with this insanity of her eccentric family – her estranged father (Woody Harrelson) who was dismissed from his role in government due to his extra-martial affairs, her brother (Spike Fearn) who has lived a reclusive life following the death of their mother, her husband (Jack Lowden) who is striving for a higher purpose than just being “the husband”, and her aunt (Jamie Lee Curtis) who invasively tries to guide Ella as a mother figure with her best intentions.
Unfortunately, Ella McCay may be one of the worst movies of 2025, despite the acclaim, talent, and sheer star-power at the foundations of this film. Brooks has made a fantastic filmography of stories that feel distinctly set in a world of his creation. There is this heightened sense of reality within his films where the comedy, characters, and scenarios feel a little bit larger than life, but are still grounded enough to explore such intimately human themes. Ella McCay might just be his most detached from reality movie yet, with incredibly bizarre, odd decisions made across the board.
The narrative is so disjointed that it’s almost impossible to hone in on what the movie is actually about. Scenes and moments have no flow or rhythm to them in the present day, let alone how sudden certain flashbacks to teenage Ella (who is also confusingly played by Mackey, and you can only tell it’s a flashback because Harrelson and Curtis are wearing obvious wigs) create even more structural confusion. Even the editing within the same scenes can feel incredibly jarring, disrupting the flow of the experience.
Brooks also interjects far too many random side characters into the plot, and not necessarily to impact Ella’s own story. Kumail Nanjiani plays a police officer assigned as Ella’s driver and security, but his character serves no purpose until the final 5 minutes of the film where a supposed “pay-off” plays out. But even stranger than this, another police officer assigned to the security detail is randomly added into the mix well over halfway through the film to bring forth a half-baked commentary about how little overtime police officers are paid. It’s odd and completely inconsequential to the story. Ayo Edibiri is featured in one of the film’s most awkward, extended scenes as Casey’s (Ella’s brother) ex-girlfriend of whom he attempts to rekindle their romance. The over-acting and abhorrent dialogue in this moment, firstly feels adjacent to the quality of Tommy Wiseau’s The Room, and secondly is such a waste of the talent of Edibiri. These are just two examples of how chaotic this film is character wise.
And the core cast aren’t free of criticism either, with Mackey, Curtis, Lowden, and Harrelson all acting like they are in different movies. Each performance is wildly over-the-top, often outdoing the insane tone of the film and feeling completely detached from even the heightened reality of the world. Curtis feels the most authentic to what Brooks is seemingly trying to achieve, and was really the only performance that garnered a few chuckles and giggles in the cinema. Mackay invokes a Woody Allen style neurosis that comes off as more infuriating than endearing. Lowden has a WWE style heel-turn halfway through the story that comes out of nowhere. And Woody Harrelson just does his best Woody Harrelson as a dad who is trying to reconnect with his family at the request of his new (annoying) girlfriend.
It is baffling and astounding how much of a failure Ella McCay is as a film, especially with such esteemed talent involved. The cast can be forgiven to an extent for wanting to work with such a legend like James L. Brooks, but perhaps the quality of their performances is indicative of the poor quality of the work from such a revered filmmaker. At 85 years of age, Brooks has a film in Ella McCay that has more in common with the ramblings of a drunk uncle than the romantic dramedies that won him awards decades ago.
Ella McCay is in Australian cinemas December 11
