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.

---

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

Movie Review

Korean film No Other Choice uses dark comedy to tell deeper story

Lee Byung-hun in No Other Choice

Photo courtesy of Neon

Lee Byung-hun in No Other Choice.

When Parasite won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2020, it signaled a shift in how international feature films were viewed not only by Academy voters, but also American filmgoers, who made it the fifth-highest grossing non-English language film of all time. Extra attention has been paid to other international films in the intervening years, including the new South Korean film, No Other Choice.

Starring Lee Byung-hun of Squid Game fame, the dark comedy chronicles the increasingly desperate actions of Man-su, a middle manager at a paper factory who is laid off due to automation. After months of trying to find a job at another paper company, he finally finds a good prospect only to learn that several other men may be better candidates. Man-su decides that the only solution is to eliminate the competition.

The only problem is Man-su is a bit of a coward; an early plan at standing up to his company in the face of the lay-offs meets an anticlimactic end. His wishy-washy ways seem to permeate his life, from putting off treatment on a painful tooth to not communicating with his more willful wife to actually going through with his vengeful ideas. He bumbles his way through every aspect of his life, virtually daring anyone to call him out on his poor decision-making.

Written and directed by Park Chan-wook, and co-written by Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, and Jahye Lee, the film initially seems to be another approach toward telling the class division story that’s at the center of Parasite and Squid Game. And it is that to a degree, as those in charge of the paper companies and the hiring committees are either indifferent or unsympathetic to the plight of those who have been forced out of work.

But the more we see of Man-su, the more it becomes clear that his is a story all its own, one where a man claims there is “no other choice” when in fact there are plenty of other options. The men in the film in general don’t come across well, with many of them reacting to stress by turning into whiners who believe the world is out to get them. Some situations turn violent as the film goes along, events that most of the time could have been avoided if the people involved actually took the time to think things through.

The film features a somewhat confusing story made even more puzzling if you don’t speak Korean. On first viewing, it’s initially unclear why Man-su is doing what he’s doing, or why he’s going after certain people in particular. The plot becomes more understandable as the film progresses, but Chan-wook includes several side plots that muddle things further even as they broaden certain characters. There are also a couple of visual text jokes that can easily be missed if you don’t know where to look.

Byung-hun is great as a man who can’t seem to get out of his own way. The role is almost in direct contrast to the one he played on Squid Game, making it easy to see how well he can adapt to different stories. Son Ye-jin as Man-su’s wife Miri and Lee Sung-min as Bummo, one of Man-su’s intended victims, are also highly engaging.

Like any film not in English, No Other Choice requires viewers to pay strict attention to the screen to get full enjoyment of the actors and their dialogue. While it doesn’t hit as hard as a comedy because of this factor, it’s still a greatly entertaining film whose underlying message makes it become a little deeper.

---

No Other Choice is now playing in theaters.

Loading...