
But that subplot feels shoehorned in and underexplored. The setting is prime Sorkin territory, and there’s considerable texture in the snippy dynamics between on-camera talent and creatives, as well as specific interactions within the group, like the antagonistic banter of Vance and the amusingly curmudgeonly Frawley, the latter already drunk at 10 a.m.Īrianda brings a touching bruised dignity to Vance’s resentment at Ethel being the butt of jokes about her frumpiness, and her efforts to make the character something more than a frazzled hausfrau married to a grump many years her senior. But another item did run suggesting Desi has been philandering, which chafes at Lucy even more. When stars, writers and producer assemble for Monday morning’s table read, they breathe a sigh of relief that none of the papers has picked up the story. It seems almost inconceivable in these days of infinitely fragmented cable and streaming audiences, but I Love Lucy was drawing 60 million viewers a week when gossip columnist Walter Winchell dropped in an item linking Ball to the Communist Party at the end of his radio broadcast. Being the Ricardos feels like a project Sorkin has shaped to fit his interests rather than one organically rooted there, and that assiduous molding drains its emotional charge.
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There’s little sense of impassioned investment to match the fiery outrage that coursed through Sorkin’s last feature, The Trial of the Chicago 7, or his stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, making it easy in those cases to accept the trademark grandstanding. The same goes for the bland visual gloss. All four do standout work, with sturdy backup from Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat and Jake Lacy as the three writers’ room fixtures struggling to pull together an episode amid constant disruptions.īut the snappy, hyper-articulate banter and the liberal self-congratulation all come from Sorkin’s familiar bag of tricks. Simmons and Nina Arianda as actors Vivian Vance and William Frawley, who played the Ricardos’ best friends and neighbors, Fred and Ethel Mertz, on TV. While the film is never less than engrossing, its admiration for the nonpareil physical-comedy gifts of a pioneering giant of American television seems secondary to its coopting of her as a quintessentially Sorkinesque smartest person in the room.įavoring deep-dive characterization over physical resemblance or mimicry, the performances of Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as golden-age TV’s best-loved couple can’t be faulted.
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But this chronicle of a fraught week in the production of CBS’ phenomenally popular 1950s sitcom, I Love Lucy, and the personal and professional lives of its married stars, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, arguably is as much about Aaron Sorkin as his celebrated subjects.

Hollywood adores few things more than a Hollywood story, so there should be no shortage of folks nostalgic for bygone studio days, ready to eat up Being the Ricardos.
