BEING THE RICARDOS (2021)

Very slick, very entertaining, Aaron Sorkin eavesdrops behind-the-scenes of a crisis-fueled week at pioneering ‘50s sit-com I LOVE LUCY.  With four fires to put out and larded with nonlinear backstory, not to mention a few anachronistic gender-woke issues, there's never a dull moment at the Ricardos . . . er . . . the Arnaz's.  And while Sorkin’s direction proves as alarmingly facile as his infamous buzz-saw dialogue, he’s certainly got the dream cast to pull it off.  Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, Nina Arianda and most especially J.K. Simmons playing Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance & William Frawley, all superb as they deal with two chronic problems (getting the weekly show in shape; ignoring/confronting Desi’s infidelities) along with two acute public relation eruptions (Lucy’s pregnancy; Lucy’s purported Communist Party past).  As to what’s true and what’s not, Sorkin doesn’t exactly breed confidence with gaffes like RKO’s canning Lucy after a dramatic breakthru with THE BIG STREET/’42.*  Lucy not the stated 39 at the time, but 31; supposedly fighting Judy Holliday for the role years before Holliday even made a film let alone a name in Hollywood; and Lucy’s misery at leaving RKO when she was almost immediately picked up by top M-G-M producer Arthur Freed  for DUBARRY WAS A LADY/’43.  (In '40s Hollywood, that’s like checking OUT of Motel 6 and checking IN at the Waldorf.)  In spite of such things, satisfying & fun.  (Love to know if the big finish with Desi saving the day was true.)

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Odd not to mention that Desilu Studios took over what had been the old RKO lot.   Or that Arnaz’s groundbreaking 3-camera sit-com filming technique was actually created by cinematographer Karl Freund, a stylist who journeyed all the way from the heights of ‘20s UFA German Expressionism to I LOVE LUCY.  And where’s Lucy’s mom, owner of Hollywood’s loudest, most easily recognizable laugh?  So contagious, later sit-coms used real laughter from old I LOVE LUCY shows on laugh tracks for decades.

DB: *Ball is good in STREET.  But even better in her other Damon Runyon film, SORROWFUL JONES/’49.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/big-street-1942.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/03/sorrowful-jones-1949.html