Ella McCay Is a Movie Out of Time (and a Bad One at That)

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Ella McCay is on digital and I finally got to see the movie critics are calling "clunky," "bewildering," and "messy." Two reviews in particular struck me. One of them was from Wendy Ide of the U.K. version of The Observer who called it "Dated in tone and positively antediluvian in its attitudes towards women in power..." The other was from Jonathan Romney of The Financial Times. His review said, "This is a woolly, self-congratulatory fossil of a film, nostalgic for an imaginary past."

Directors of the '80s and '90s have really struggled to acclimate to the new landscape of filmmaking. Brooks hadn't made a movie since 2010, the lackluster How Do You Know. Other directors have faced similar struggles: Nancy Meyers is still working (or trying to), but her 2015 movie The Intern is often ignored in the ouevre of her work. Even the late great Rob Reiner struggled to connect with audiences beyond his 2007 feature The Bucket List.