A story behind one of the most influential shows of all time.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz face a crisis that could end their careers and another that could end their marriage.
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Character
Nostalgic, grave, prestige and resolved.
- contemporarynostalgic
- gravecomic
- unpretentiousprestige
- resolvedopen-ended
- cooloverwhelming
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“Is Nicole Kidman the best thing in Being the Ricardos?”
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“Is the nostalgia doing the heavy lifting?”
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“Does it take too many liberties with the true story?”
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A yes-or-no question, answered from what people wrote here, on TMDB and on Wikipedia. Never made up.
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Reviews on TMDB
Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Tastebuds's numbers.
- tmdb28039023on TMDB · Aug 20221/10
There are two lines of dialogue in Being the Ricardos that really caught my attention. One is “I literally said that 30 seconds ago,” and the other is “It takes fewer words to say that than the truth.” This film feels like a lot of the former when it should be more of the latter. Why does a movie called Being the Ricardos spends so much time on Ethel/Vivian Vance (Nina Arianda) and Fred/William Frawley (J.K. Simmons), whom nobody cared about 70 years ago, and no one cares about today? Speaking of redundant characters, writer/director Aaron Sorkin aims to give the film a documentary feel with asides set in the present day in which people involved with the production of I Love Lucy talk about it — kind of like in Reds, except that Reds worked because the individuals interviewed were who they were supposed to be, and not actors playing aged versions of people who are already played by other, younger actors in the main narrative. These parentheses do little but repeat things we have just seen, or are about to see, dramatized in the scene immediately before or after (either show or tell — preferably show —, but not both); they have no value other than as filler, and filler is exactly th
Read the whole review on TMDB - CinemaSerfon TMDB · Mar 20226/10
I vaguely recall watching "I Love Lucy" - or perhaps I just recall that memorable theme tune, but I have to say I knew nothing at all about the "Desilu" couple before watching this. As ever, it has Sorkin's trademark dialogue - quickly paced, pithy at times; but somehow the performances just didn't catch fire. Kidman is a very versatile actress, she can turn her hand to just abut anything - but for this to have worked better, she would have needed a more convincing foil. Javier Bardem just isn't him. Their lively relationship is suggested rather than demonstrated and much of what made them the US household names they were is, again, just taken for granted. Their domestic status as super-stars was not replicated globally, and yet little time is spent trying to explain to those less familiar just who they were and why they were so popular. JK Simmons is effective as their co-star "Bill Frawley" and all told it is a watchable biopic, but for me it looked more like a labour of love for an auteur who was maybe just a bit too close to the subject matter, and who made assumptions that the rest of us would be also. It looks great, has a ping at the Communist witch-hunt apparatus in place a
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Cast
- Nicole KidmanLucille Ball
- Javier BardemDesi Arnaz
- J.K. SimmonsWilliam Frawley
- Nina AriandaVivian Vance
- Tony HaleJess Oppenheimer
- Alia ShawkatMadelyn Pugh
- Jake LacyBob Carroll Jr.
- Linda LavinOlder Madelyn Pugh
- Ronny CoxOlder Bob Carroll
- John RubinsteinOlder Jess Oppenheimer
Crew
- Aaron SorkinDirector
- Aaron SorkinWriter
- Jeff CronenwethDirector of Photography
- Daniel PembertonOriginal Music Composer
- Alan BaumgartenEditor
- Jason BlumenthalProducer
- Todd BlackProducer
- Steve TischProducer
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