"In the poster advertising the new film Ella McCay, a woman stands on one leg, her mid-length coat waving around her, as she gently touches the back of the high heel of her left shoe. Her other arm is extended up and out for balance. It is such a strange position that people have begun posing like her as a challenge. What could this movie possibly be about? Was it about shoes? Was it about imbalance? Who the hell is Ella McCay?"
"These were the questions that haunted me when I went to New Jersey on Saturday to find out. I traveled to the closest theater playing Ella McCay, bought a giant popcorn and giant soda, and settled in. The 2:00 p.m. showing, one day after the movie's release, was almost entirely empty. There were seven other people in the theater, and my friend and I (both in our 30s) were a full two decades younger than any of them."
A film poster shows a woman balancing on one leg while touching her left high heel, inspiring imitation poses and curiosity about the film's subject. A trip to a New Jersey theater revealed a nearly empty early-afternoon screening with mostly much older attendees. Ella McCay represents James L. Brooks's first feature-length film in fifteen years; Brooks co-created The Simpsons and made Terms of Endearment. The movie resists comparison to his prior work and presents as a fever-dream narrative. The film fails to land as funny or coherent, leaving viewers puzzled and unsure of its meaning.
Read at Defector
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