A disappointing 'Ella McCay'

 

 If you have fond memories of Terms of Endearment,  Broadcast News, and Good As It Gets, you've probably been looking forward to a new movie from director James L. Brooks. 

  No slouch as a writer/director, Brooks not only directed the three movies I mentioned, he also played a role in creating the landmark TV comedies, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi.  Additionally, he's known as a creator and developer of The Simpsons.

 Ella McCay is Brooks's first movie since 2010's How Do You Know, which wasn't greeted with much enthusiasm. Still, as an admirer of Brooks's ability to create memorable characters in movies that hit plenty of strong notes, I was hoping for a bullseye.

  Aside from enjoying the always-welcome presence of Albert Brooks -- this time as a governor who resigns his position to take a job as Secretary of the Interior -- I spent much of Ella McCay fighting off disappointment. I expected a movie that spoke to the moment, and found one that seemed to have been taken from the day-old cinematic shelf.  

   Set in 2008, the movie gives a major role to Emma Mackey (Netflix's Sex Education). Mackey plays the title character, an amped-up policy wonk. As  a 34-year-old lieutenant governor, Ella lands the governor's job when Brooks' s character departs for Washington. 

   If you're looking for intermittent displays of charm, Mackey's performance may hit the spot, but the character she's playing didn't strike me as intriguing  enough to carry the film past Ella's commitment to   political pablum: She wants to help mothers and children.

   Perhaps to add some conflict, Brooks adds wrinkles involving a misuse of government property and the brewing jealousy of Ella's increasingly bitter husband (Jack Lowden). The owner of a pizza restaurant, Lowden's Ryan begins to resent his wife's success.

  A promising supporting cast can't put much spring into Ella McCay's step, either. Jamie Lee Curtis signs on as Ella's no-nonsense aunt, the woman who raised her. Woody Harrelson portrays Ella's philandering father, and Kumail Nanjiani plays Trooper Nash, the state cop who becomes Ella's loyal driver.

   Spike Fearn appears as Ella's brother Casey, a computer genius who's trying to win back the woman (Ayo Edebiri) he didn't know how to court. Brooks resolves the relationship a little too easily.

    Despite a variety of complications, the comedy often flatlines. We never learn what state Ella is governing, and her work as governor often plays second fiddle to her personal issues: coaxing her nerdy brother out of isolation, visiting her aunt, or dealing with her husband.

     No more need be said: My heart sank for Brooks, now 85, and for myself; I was hoping that Ella McCay would serve as a sparkling addendum to a strong career. What I got instead was what an admired editor I knew used to say when confronted with something he found wanting: "a tepid potato."

'Alien: Romulus' spews acid on new faces

    

  The events in Alien: Romulus occur between the time of the original Ridley Scott’s Alien and Aliens, James Cameron's follow-up. That makes Romulus both a sequel and a prequel, or, a midquel or interquel if you want to get technical about it.

  Whatever you choose to call this eighth installment, Alien: Romulus brings a younger cast headed by Cailee Spaeny into the mix while reviving the movie's main attraction: hideous, acid-spewing creatures that can grow inside humans.

   Director Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead, Don't Breathe) provides plenty of jolts, although he can't entirely reinvigorate the basic Alien formula: Monstrous creatures knock off humans in confined corridors that are often sealed by locked doors. You might call this “hatch-and-latch” cinema.

   Adjustments have been made with the addition of an artificially created person named Andy (David Johnsson) and the presence of Rook,  a mangled droid that looks and sounds like the late Ian Holm, who played Ash in the first installment. And, yes, Rook makes for a creepy self-referential addition.

    In this version, dribbles of emotion trickle into the story from the relationship between Andy and Rain; she regards the child-like android as a brother. About midway through, a change in Andy's programming turns his personality from benign to rentless, a shift Johnsson makes the most of.

   Romulus gets a considerable boost from the boiler-room aesthetic that began with the original, which delivered a welcome counterpunch to sleek futuristic space operas.

    Space remains a source of minerals. The movie opens in the Jackson Mining Colony, home to scores of grizzled workers. The company that runs the place treats its employees like indentured servants.

   The story picks up when Tyler (Archie Renaux) invites Rain to join him on a rogue mission to salvage spare parts from an abandoned space station that's divided into two sections, Romulus and Remus. The group wants to escape the mining life for a freer part of the universe. Rain hopes to flee the darkness and see the sun.

  A corporation (evil, of course) had been conducting genetic experiments in the Romulus part of the station. If you don't know why all the station's residents are dead, you've never seen an Alien movie.

   Oh yeah, one space traveler (Spike Fearn) hates synthetics, the movie's term for droids; another is pregnant (Isabela Yolanda Moner), allowing for the appearance of a grotesque ... 

   Never mind. No sense spoiling Alvarez's finale, although you may see it coming.

   The proliferation of alien monsters effectively upgrades opportunities for tension. Alvarez has emphasized that the actors  mostly worked with animatronics or puppets rather than computer-generated effects. I suppose that’s another virtue.

    Slime and gore aside, corporate exploitation seems like a worn-out theme. Moreover, the movie's fresh faces, bizarre genetic twists, and strong atmospherics only carry Romulus so far -- better than some recent Alien movies, but not as good as first two.

    And, look, the previous Alien movies haven't left much unsaid.

    As for the big reveal during the movie's concluding battle, I chuckled. I don't think that was the response the movie was looking for.