{"id":23981,"date":"2021-12-08T21:48:53","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T05:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=23981"},"modified":"2021-12-08T21:48:53","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T05:48:53","slug":"being-the-ricardos-details-backstage-strife-on-a-famous-tv-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=23981","title":{"rendered":"BEING THE RICARDOS Details Backstage Strife on a Famous TV Series"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Amazon Studios will release this film in theaters on\nDecember 10, 2021 and globally on Prime Video December 21st<\/sup>, 2021.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucille Ball is an iconic figure in television, perhaps most famous for her work starring in the 1950s series I Love Lucy<\/em> and later as a producer and studio executive. Her TV show is considered one of the best and most successful sitcoms that has ever aired on television. Yet while this program broke ratings records and was adored by the public, it seems that things weren\u2019t as calm behind the scenes. Being the Ricardos<\/em> is a biopic that attempts to present viewers with a detailed portrait of Ball, as well as the I Love Lucy<\/em> on-set chaos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Specifically, the film details one tumultuous week that\nimpacts the lives of the show\u2019s married stars Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and\nDesi Arnaz (Javier Bardem). In between Ball\u2019s usual bickering with cast members\nVivian Vance (Nina Arianda) and William Frawley (J.K. Simmons), the pair must also\naddress creative conflicts with series producer Jess Oppenheimer (Tony Hale)\nand writers Madelyn Pugh (Alia Shawkat) and Bob Carroll (Jake Lacy). As this is\noccurring, two major scandals arise. One report claims that Arnaz is cheating\non Ball, while another asserts that the actress is a member of the communist\nparty. As they discuss and deal with fallout from these articles, the leads also\nplan to announce Ball\u2019s pregnancy and plot to convince executives to make the\nreal event a part of the fictional show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s certainly a lot of turmoil and positive and negative\ntraits of both comedienne Lucille Ball and musician Desi Arnaz are displayed. Each\nof these performers have strong personalities are unwilling to give up or\ncompromise on their individual wants and needs. In fact, it\u2019s later explicitly\nstated by Ball that the show is actually an attempt to keep her marriage and\nfamily from splitting apart. As one might expect, many of their production ideas\nare ahead-of-their-time and some of the movie\u2019s best moments show how Ball and\nArnaz deal with objections from executives and staff and push ahead with their\nown plans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of course, this stress also causes Ball to treat co-stars\nand the writers with more disdain than they deserve. This includes her attempts\nto manipulate Vivian Vance after the actress begins losing weight. The film\nisn\u2019t afraid to show its protagonists as fallible and occasionally cruel and that\nmeans that this is a meaty role for star Kidman. At times she does resemble\nBall and effectively recreates the performer\u2019s raspy voice. Bardem is also good\nas the friendly and charming but somewhat distant Arnaz. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/director Aaron Sorkin (The Trail of the Chicago 7<\/em>) will also be familiar to many as the creator of the TV show The West Wing<\/em>. He is renowned for his sharp dialogue and there are zingers being thrown around. Sadly, fewer of them appear to hit the mark in this outing. The cast and crew appear devoted to creating an authentic-looking versions of the real individuals involved. But in this case, the attention to detail results in an unexpected stiffness to the drama. Additionally, some of the film\u2019s messages end up being bluntly delivered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another bizarre decision is a series of interviews with the I Love Lucy<\/em> staff in their 70s. This approach might have worked had footage of the real Oppenheimer, Pugh and Carroll been used. Instead, actors John Rubinstein, Linda Lavin and Ronny Cox play these roles, pretending to be reminiscing and talking frankly about their experiences with Ball and Arnaz on the studio backlot. It\u2019s a strange and completely unnecessary addition to the story that adds a level of artifice to the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the end, Being the Ricardos<\/em> is interesting and certainly highlights some of the tension and strife that existed during the production of I Love Lucy<\/em> when the cameras weren\u2019t rolling. Everything looks right and the movie has its moments but there are definitely oddities and hiccups, resulting in a final product that doesn\u2019t feel as engrossing as it should. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amazon Studios will release this film in theaters on December 10, 2021 and globally on Prime Video December 21st, 2021. Lucille Ball is an iconic figure in television, perhaps most famous for her work starring in the 1950s series I Love Lucy and later as a producer and studio executive. Her TV show is considered one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[206,1028,2478,2479,2480,2481,2789,5758,6251,9556,10067,10184,12756,14912,15922,23087],"class_list":["post-23981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-206","tag-alia-shawkat","tag-being-the-ricardos","tag-being-the-ricardos-film-review","tag-being-the-ricardos-movie-review","tag-being-the-ricardos-review","tag-biopic","tag-desi-arnaz","tag-drama","tag-i-love-lucy","tag-j-k-simmons","tag-jake-lacey","tag-lucille-ball","tag-nina-arianda","tag-period","tag-tony-hale"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}