Rating: PG
Runtime: 1 hour, 43 minutes
Director: Amy Poehler
Quick Impressions:
I had been meaning to watch this documentary for what felt like an eternity but may in actuality have been only a week. (I feel a bit lost in time. I’ll blame Daylight Savings Time, although that makes no sense because I watched this on Saturday, before DST had officially started.) Since I’ve been having trouble coming up with the perfect ending for the last novel in my six-book series, I decided to shake up my thoughts by writing an entirely different book. That has, in fact, worked brilliantly for jumpstarting my creativity. It’s also great because I’m working with another writer and having lots of fun. It’s not the best strategy for freeing up my time, though. Oh well!
I’ve been wanting to learn more about Lucille Ball ever since I found myself staring at a mural of Lucy and Desi in Culver City when I went there for Jeopardy! last spring. I walked past the mural several times. I found it so striking. I took a picture by it, then thought, “This looks very important. I should probably spend some time staring at it.” So I did. Ever since, I’ve been thinking, “I need learn more about Lucille Ball.” Conveniently, both Aaron Sorkin and Amy Poehler then made movies about her, a gift from the universe to me. (At this point, I really need to buy a good biography. In fact, I’ll do that now before I finish writing this review. One moment.) (Okay, I bought a children’s biography so I can multi-task and have my son read it to me. For someone who professes to hate all movies and scripted TV shows, he was surprisingly interested in this documentary.)
Like I said, I watched Lucy and Desi on Saturday, but I spent the entire weekend working on that new book. Plus on Sunday, the Critics Choice Awards finally happened just hours after the BAFTAs. (I pointed out to my son, “There’s the man who wrote ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno.’” Glancing up, he groaned, “Oh no! He’s not going to sing it is he?” “He might,” my daughter threatened. My son frequently complains that everyone at his school will not stop singing that song. Then today, I caught him listening to the soundtrack with his sister! “This is odd behavior for someone who hates all movies,” I pointed out. Seeming annoyed, he admitted defensively, “Look, I love Encanto.” He’s always surprising me. He seems quite taken with Lucille Ball, too.)
The Good:
Two things jumped out at me right away—Lucy and Desi! Just kidding.
1) The timing of this documentary is somewhat unfortunate for Nicole Kidman because it only emphasizes further how she looks absolutely nothing like Lucille Ball. (I don’t know if that matters at this point, now that all the awards keep going to Jessica Chastain, who, in fairness, did give the best performance in that category.) But Lucille Ball looks a lot more like Lucille Ball than Kidman does. Now I can see a flip side to that, of course. Maybe the timing of this documentary’s release will help the Oscar chances of Being the Ricardos. I listened to Aaron Sorkin talk about not wanting to “sacrifice truth in order to be accurate.” Watching Being the Ricardos did give me a sense of Lucy and Desi that doesn’t contradict anything I saw in this film. The fictionalized drama did provide helpful context. I liked the experience of digesting and chewing on some emotionally significant events of their lives (as dramatized by others in that film) and then learning some facts, hearing them describe their lives in their own voices, and watching clips of them from I Love Lucy in this documentary. Sorkin’s movie and Poehler’s documentary work pretty well in tandem, I suppose.
2 ) I cannot believe that I never noticed before how much the physical comedy of Amy Poehler herself is modeled on the physical comedy of Lucille Ball. I don’t know why I never noticed that. I mean, particularly when Poehler is doing exaggerated sketch comedy, playing characters, like she did on Saturday Night Live. As a child, I watched plenty of reruns of I Love Lucy, and I certainly watched Poehler on SNL (and in many other things). Why did I never notice that before? (Maybe it’s because I watched I Love Lucy as a young child. Lucy reruns (that I saw) were mostly on in the 1980s (when I was in elementary school), whereas Poehler didn’t enter my awareness until the early 2000s (when I was in college). That’s kind of a gap. The similarities are quite pronounced, though (probably because Poehler is selecting the clips of I Love Lucy to show to make sure that they are).
To be honest, I watched I Love Lucy a lot less than some people because neither of my parents was ever too crazy about it. While watching this documentary, my dad complained that he had thought the show was too ridiculous when he was a kid but noted that he could see some of the humor in it now. My mom, also, was not a huge fan of I Love Lucy because she found it too outrageous. (“She always finds the least practical solution to a problem,” she complained. “Oh, the door is stuck? Let me knock down the wall.”) We watched a lot of old TV shows, though. Quite a number. I feel it must have been all of them that existed. We watched Ozzy and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver, My Three Sons, The Original Mickey Mouse Club, Dobie Gillis, Mr. Ed…Far more than that! We watched everything. (Looking back I keep wondering, “How did we have time to watch all this TV? I never have time do anything!”) But watching with my parents, I saw more of Lucille Ball in random gameshow appearances and old movies than actually on I Love Lucy.
I personally had a higher opinion of I Love Lucy than my parents, though, because in fifth grade, I was in a program called Odyssey of the Mind. We had to write a skit that solved a problem of technology and was a parody of a TV show. (I can’t remember the exact instructions. It was something like that.) Several of us really, really wanted to do a sketch about Smurfs being on Wheel of Fortune. (It was my idea. Imagine how frustrated and baffled Pat Sajak and Vanna White would get as Smurfs said stuff like, “I’d like to Smurf a vowel. Smurf!” By their nature, Smurfs would have to substitute “Smurf” for words and letters! You’d never know if they were solving the puzzle right or not!) Others quickly got on board, imagining tiny Smurfs falling onto the wheel when they tried to spin it. New Smurfs would have to keep coming out to play as more and more Smurfs fell onto the wheel, throwing the whole thing out of balance. But the teacher sponsoring us pointed out that this would be extremely difficult to carry out logistically within our time and budget constraints. (I was like, “Come on! We don’t even need a wheel!” But then everyone else was like, “Then what will the Smurfs fall onto?”) And we did have to make a prop that used technology. The teacher kept nudging us toward I Love Lucy until we agreed. Then she brought in several episodes for us to watch on VHS, and because I was watching trying to write a skit, I liked the show. I kept trying to convince my mom, “You know this show is really pretty good. Certain things have to happen in every episode, like Murder She Wrote.” She was not sold, but after writing a fake episode of I Love Lucy, I had a higher opinion of the show than she did. (I haven’t thought of that for years!)
This documentary is something you want to watch right away because so early on, Lucie Arnaz and Carol Burnett show up. And you think, “Yes, I see why they would be telling me more about Lucille Ball. This seems reputable.” And best of all, Poehler has access to voice recordings made on cassette tapes by Lucy and Desi themselves. Whatever its shortcomings (and I can’t think of many), the documentary assures us of its authenticity. There’s no question in our minds like, “Why are these people telling this story?” Lucy and Desi speak themselves, and so do both of their children!
I really like, too, that this documentary goes beyond just I Love Lucy. We learn about Lucy’s early life, her family, that chilling story about the kid next door, the years she spent in film and radio. I particularly appreciate all the material about Desi Arnaz, especially the attention given to his life in Cuba. I never knew any of that (beyond Javier Bardem yelling, “I was chased to this country, Lucy!”)
My husband just came downstairs and adds, “The documentary was very educational. I didn’t realize how much of an impact they had on the entire television industry, like being the first TV show to be filmed in front of a live studio audience. Also, I thought of I Love Lucy as being just one show, but they were instrumental in developing a lot of shows and running an entire studio. I never knew much about Lucille Ball’s early career, either.”
Best Action Sequence:
I love the material about Cuba. I had no idea how literally Desi Arnaz was chased to this country. In fact, before watching Being the Ricardos, I didn’t even know that Arnaz was chased to this country at all. I knew he was Cuban, but because I learned that when I was a child, I didn’t really put it together that he was Cuban at a time of civil unrest. Now I do know a very little about Fulgencio Batista because when my family lived in Laredo, our landlord had left Cuba when Batista was ousted by Castro. Their family thought highly of Batista’s regime, and that’s the Cuban revolution I usually call to mind (when Castro came in), not the events of 1933. Watching this documentary makes me realize how little I know about Cuba, and it leaves me much more sympathetic to Desi Arnaz (who’s quite a complex, tormented figure here) than Being the Ricardos did (though he looks pretty good in that, too, frankly).
Best Scene:
Hearing Lucie Arnaz recount the last phone call between her parents is very touching.
“That’s so sad,” I said, tearing up.
“It sure is!” my six-year-old declared emphatically.
“I didn’t think you were watching,” I said in surprise (because he wasn’t looking at the screen at all).
“You don’t have to watch to know that someone dying on their anniversary is sad,” he told me matter-of-factly. “You only have to hear it. That’s sad for anybody to hear.” (Maybe documentaries are a way to ease him into liking movies. I think he appreciates hearing information narrated. He watches a lot of YouTube.)
Best Scene Visually:
I like the aerial view from the helicopter when Desi Arnaz is saying, “Oh hey, look at that! It’s our studio!” That reminded me of watching reruns of The Magical World of Disney featuring Walt Disney casually dropping in to introduce you to his latest project.
The Negatives:
I wish the documentary were longer. They tantalizingly mention a treasure trove of cassette tapes recorded by Lucy and Desi. I am quite sure that we didn’t listen to all the voice recordings. I want to listen to every tape, start to finish. (I am aware that paring down excesses of material is the only way to make a coherent and suitably short documentary, but I can’t kill the urge to want to hear it all.)
Sorkin’s movie spends so much time on the fact that Desi was having affairs. (It’s one of the big questions of the week. Is he faithful to Lucy or not? Was that story about him cheating entirely fictitious, or was it just the wrong picture paired with a true story?) This documentary kind of glosses over that. Lucie Arnaz comes across as very eager to rehabilitate her father’s reputation. (I’m not sure that it needed rehabilitating. I don’t know anybody saying, “I just can’t stand that Desi Arnaz! What a villain!” The real issue seems to be that few people remember Desi and do not realize the immense contribution he made to television.) What I mean is, that Arnaz seems so protective of her father. I don’t blame her. I’m protective of my father, too. And the world knows and loves Lucille Ball. If something went wrong in their marriage, it must not be her fault! (That’s the way people think, I mean. It’s never the more famous person’s fault, unless the more famous person is Taylor Swift.) I can see that Lucie Arnaz wants her father’s side of the story told in a fair way that shows him in his best light. The Desi Arnaz in this movie seems exhausted and unable to fill the void left by the loss of his home in Cuba. It seems like a slightly different characterization. (Also in the documentary, we hear that Jess Oppenheimer wanted to announce the pregnancy on the show and make it part of the show, and Lucy and Desi were surprised. In the Sorkin movie, Desi wants to work the pregnancy into the show, and Oppenheimer is resistant. I need to watch both again, I guess, because this is very different. I don’t know how much it matters since both men are dead, and it all worked out for the best. But that was something that confused me.)
I would also like to know more about Vivian Vance. I’ve heard rumors that she and Lucille Ball didn’t always get along. (And I know that she and William Frawley didn’t get along. That’s consistently said by everyone.) In Being the Ricardos, despite the fact that Lucy and Vivian keep making peace, their relationship seems consistently strained. So why did Vance agree to make a second TV show with her? (I guess maybe it’s not that mysterious. I’m sure if I were an actress at that time, I’d continue making TV shows with Lucille Ball, too.) (I’d be like, “On the one hand, you murdered my mother, but on the other hand, you are Lucille Ball, and I want to keep working on a successful TV show.”) I just wish I knew more about Vance. She keeps coming up (because I keep watching stuff about Lucille Ball). (This could be remedied by reading up on Vivian Vance, I am sure. But I haven’t even found time to read about Lucille Ball yet! When am I going to read about Vivian Vance?)
Honestly, I can’t think of much I didn’t like about this documentary. It makes me want to read more about the topic, and I’m dying to show my daughter some episodes of I Love Lucy. (I know I said that when I watched Being the Ricardos, too. The problem is, we’re trying to watch everything, read everything, do everything. We need more than twenty-four hours in a day! We’re kicking off spring break with a series of picnics, and she just finished reading Dune and has convinced me that now we need to read it out loud together. That ought to take a while! (She’s noticed she has a tendency to skim when excited, so she likes me to read the entire thing to her again, so she gets every word. After reading the first few chapters to her, I’ve discovered that Dune is way more fun when you read it out loud! The characters are all so dramatic.)
You know what is kind of weird? When I was looking for a biography of Lucille Ball at the beginning of this review, I opened the Amazon app on my phone and entered “Lucille Ball” into its search bar. The first result it yielded was Flower Drum Song (a DVD with Nancy Kwan on the cover). I then spent several minutes trying to figure out what in the world Lucille Ball had to do with the movie Flower Drum Song! (We watched that movie all the time when I was a kid. I never knew Lucille Ball had anything to do with it, and as far as I can determine, she didn’t.) Finally, I noticed that search result was “sponsored” and realized it was just an ad (maybe unrelated to my search term?). I mention this because both Lucy and Desi and Being the Ricardos are available through Prime Video. If I were Amazon, I’d have those come up first when someone entered, “Lucille Ball,” into the search bar. But Amazon seems to be doing okay, so I guess it doesn’t matter what I think. (Amazon’s search engine is probably working just fine since I now keep thinking, “We should watch Flower Drum Song! I haven’t seen that in forever! Do we own a copy of that?”)
Overall:
Lucy and Desi is a quick and informative watch. If you’re interested in Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, watch it. If you liked the movie Being the Ricardos, you’d better watch it, too. Honestly I don’t know who wouldn’t like it. Even my six-year-old son liked it, and he was pointedly trying not to watch it. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz had very interesting lives!