(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding? – – Ella McCay (2025, USA, Color, 115 min) – – 16 December 2025

Recommended. Ella McCay is not as good as it gets. There are major flaws and moments where one wonders if eight-time Oscar nominee (three winners) writer/director James L. Brooks (As Good As It Gets) might have benefited from a producer other than himself. Regardless, Ella McCay has no Fire and Ash and it is an unpretentious little picture with rarely-seen-any-more talent, like Julie Kavner (The Simpsons) and Albert Brooks (Broadcast News). In addition, Jaime Lee Curtis (The Last Showgirl) and Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick) also are welcome additions. Brooks himself hasn’t directed a picture for fifteen years. The rambling, occasionally implausible, story stumbles but a story celebrating a wonkish, idealistic female governor (Emma Mackey, Emily) overcoming incompetent (mostly) older men is heartening. Assisting Brooks were costumer Ann Roth (The Hours), composer Hans Zimmer (The Lion King) and cameraman Robert Elswit (There Will be Blood), all also friends of Oscar.