Movie Review

Lucy and Desi dives deep into work and lives of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Lucy and Desi.

Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios

For a show that’s been off the air for over 60 years, I Love Lucy is sure getting a lot of attention these days. First came Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos, a film that nabbed both Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem Oscar nominations for their portrayals of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, respectively. And now comes the documentary Lucy and Desi, which dives deep into the working and personal relationship of the famous couple.

Directed by Amy Poehler, the film uses a variety of methods to illuminate their stories, including personal audio tapes and videos, classic footage and behind-the-scenes from I Love Lucy, interviews, and more. Among the bold-faced names who weigh in with their thoughts are fellow comedy legend Carol Burnett and Bette Midler, both of whom worked with Ball early in their careers and consider her a mentor.

Burnett, Midler, daughter Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill, and leaders of the National Comedy Center extol the virtues of Ball, calling her a genius who might actually be underrated. The risks that Ball took, like making herself ugly for the sake of a laugh, were things that women just didn’t do in her day and age.

Ball’s transition from a Hollywood glamour girl, which remains an underexposed part of her career, to a woman who took charge of her own destiny is one of the more fascinating parts of the film. And it’s all the more remarkable considering the ingrained sexism that she faced as a woman in a male-dominated world.

Arnaz faced his own set of challenges as a Cuban immigrant, but seemed to overcome them with a sheer force of will. Using his musical skills and exuberant personality, he made it from a 16-year-old refugee in Miami in 1934 to being a supporting player in the 1940 film Too Many Girls, starring none other than Ball. Less than six months after they met on set, they were married.

But, as the film demonstrates, theirs was marriage that was fraught from the start. Arnaz, perhaps daunted by Ball’s large celebrity, spent the bulk of their first nine years of marriage away from her, first in a stint in the Army and then traveling the country with his band. In fact, Luckinbill posits that the creation of I Love Lucy was more than just a chance for the couple to work together; it was an attempt to bring them closer as a family, one that ultimately failed despite the success of the show.

The documentary’s coverage of the I Love Lucy years will be familiar for anyone even half-versed in the show’s history, from Ball becoming the first woman to appear pregnant on television to the Communism “scandal” surrounding Ball that Sorkin made a big focus of his film. One interesting note is that Luckinbill corroborates a scene in Being the Ricardos that had FBI director J. Edgar Hoover personally clearing Ball’s name, a scene that had been the subject of much derision.

The other legacy of Ball and Arnaz is Desilu Productions, which was founded in 1950 for their show but wound up becoming the biggest independent TV studio in the world at the time, helping bring such shows as Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Dick Van Dyke Show to the world. Ironically, though, the success of the studio made both of them unhappy, with Arnaz undone by his own ambitious drive.

Lucy and Desi attempts to play both sides of the fence, valorizing the skills and romance of Ball and Arnaz while also acknowledging the very complicated nature of their relationship. If nothing else, it’s a compelling look at the unique place the couple holds in the history of television in the 20th century.

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Lucy and Desi premieres on Amazon Prime Video on March 4.

Movie Review

Jessica Chastain drama Dreams stumbles through steamy romance

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams

Photo courtesy of Teorema

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.

It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.

Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).

Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.

But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.

Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.

Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.

Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.

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Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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