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Being the Ricardos

Being the Ricardos

2021

Aaron Sorkin

Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, J.K. Simmons, Nina Arianda ...

5.9

5,412

Drama. Comedy Follows legend TV icon Lucy Ball (1911-1989) and her husband Desi Arnaz as they face a crisis that could end their careers and another that could end their marriage.

	Author	Review
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"The dialogue in “Being the Ricardos” has the blunt directness, dagger wit, and perfectly cut corners of Sorkinese (...) Beyond that, though, the entire movie is a piece of thrillingly stylized compression"	POS
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Ingeniously structured but weirdly mannered (...) An oddity, in which all the characters seem to be avatars for the loquacious Sorkin himself (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"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."	NEU
United States	Johnny Oleksinski New York Post	"Nicole Kidman crushes her haters with amazing 'Being the Ricardos' turn (...) It's absolutely ferocious (...) Sorkin's vision of '50s TV production is spot-on (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Robert Abele The Wrap	"Despite valiant turns by Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, the culprit for this mess is Sorkin’s writing and direction (...) Dreary, strained, and clunky"	NEG
United States	Brian Lowry CNN	"Presenting a far richer story than a simple biopic, "Being the Ricardos" turns writer-director Aaron Sorkin loose again on the medium of television and produces one of the year's most satisfying movies."	POS
United States	Robert Daniels The Playlist	"Every time the director comes close to fully casting his spell, he breaks it and reminds the viewer that despite Kidman and Bardem’s best efforts, they aren’t Lucy and Desi. [It] isn’t a total disaster, but it’s not a grand triumph either."	NEU
United Kingdom	Olly Richards Empire	"The things Sorkin is criticised for are the things that make his work sing when the context is right. The drama of this legendary TV couple gives him plenty of material to do some of his best work (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Stephen Whitty Screendaily	"Being The Ricardos has a few good performances, and a cleverly structured script. But star Nicole Kidman’s performance is shaky, and Sorkin relies too heavily on an overbearing score to deliver the emotions."	NEU
United States	Peter Travers ABC News	"Nicole Kidman is all-stops-out fabulous (...) Sorkin again finds himself accused of making characters from the past speak to the here and now. Some say he's too smart for his own good. I say there's no such thing"	POS
United States	Kate Erbland IndieWire	"Aaron Sorkin Unleashes His Worst Impulses on Awkward Portrait (...) Nicole Kidman slips into moments of genius as the savvy comedian, but she's bogged down by innumerable "Sorkinisms" that just don't fit the material."	NEG
United States	Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"The problem — or, depending on your perspective, the pleasure — is that even as Kidman does her utmost to sound like Lucy, Lucy seems to be doing her utmost to sound like Sorkin."	NEU
United States	Matt Goldberg Collider	"Watching the film, it feels like Sorkin scribbled out a bunch of interesting anecdotes about Ball and Arnaz but had no idea how to build them into a story."	NEU
United States	Brian Truitt USA Today	"Everyone loved Lucille Ball. And maybe not everyone, but folks who enjoy entertaining deep-dives into old-school Hollywood, will love Nicole Kidman playing the pioneering TV icon (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Jake Cole Slant	"Ironically, a film that betrays Sorkin's disinterest in a classic show for its lowest-common-denominator appeal calls attention to the condescending oversimplification of his own methods (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Siddhant Adlakha IGN	"Aaron Sorkin makes Lucille Ball bafflingly boring (...) Even the few things Sorkin gets almost right feel completely disconnected."	NEG
United States	Jesse Hassenger AV Club	"Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem can't act around the Sorkinisms of 'Being The Ricardos' (...) A movie that will enrapture audiences, so long as those audiences are populated with characters from 'Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip'"	NEU
United States	M.N. Miller Ready Steady Cut	"'Being the Ricardos' is addictive, movie magic (…) Rating: ★★★★½ (out of 5)"	POS
Canada	Mae Abdulbaki Screen Rant	"The film offers enough interpersonal drama to keep audiences watching and intrigued, but the story wanes and never builds enough momentum to truly impress (…) Rating: ★★½ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Mitchell Beaupre The Film Stage	"With ostensibly engaging material the film somehow couldn't be flatter. There's no panache, no cinematic sensibility at all to make this come off the page and excite the viewer"	NEG
United States	Leah Greenblatt Entertainment Weekly	"Kidman doesn't pair her performance's shrewd emotional intelligence with a physicality that feels anything like Ball's. Sorkin himself appears only vaguely interested in the particular genius of the show and what made it work"	NEU
United States	Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times	"There's life, there's TV —and there are movies about TV, and though 'Being the Ricardos' is a work of drama, it has the essence of truth (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS

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