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Honestly I’ve seen Lucy impersonators and cosplays look better than this. I know the costume designer said they didn’t want Nicole Kidman looking like a Halloween costume but she looks awful and nothing like Lucy. Wasted opportunity to do something amazing.

Finally got around to watching Being the Recardos on Amazon Prime after procrastinating for months… ugh, why do I torture myself? I knew it was going to be God-awful.

I generally hate biopics. It’s just too hard to cram an entire person’s life in 2 hours. I much prefer to read a biography or memoir which offers deeper insight and can be thorough and detailed or watch a doc. Real stories are always more interesting than dramatizations. That being said, my main issue was with the casting. I just couldn’t see Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem disappear into the roles of Lucy and Desi. They looked NOTHING like them. I will give props to Kidman to at least nailing Lucy’s voice, but otherwise, her hair and makeup was atrocious and did not embody Lucy at all (it looks better on the obviously photoshopped poster, trust me… it looks like utter sh- in the movie). I generally like Bardem but he was miscast as Desi. So he’s got an accent so what? A guy who was shorter and didn’t speak in a deep baritone would have been a better choice. I would have preferred unknowns in these parts. When you use A-list actors who are supposed to be representing Icons, it’s hard to see them as the people they’re meant to be portraying because they’re too recognizable themselves. 

I also had issues with the actress playing Vivan Vance as well (too lazy to look up her name). She was about the right age as Viv maybe a couple years younger but much too thin and pretty. Viv was an attractive woman when she wasn’t playing Ethel (they always made her look frumpy and older than she was irl) but you have to keep in mind she wasn’t a pin-up girl, either and she wasn’t old but she wasn’t that young either. She was 42 albeit classy but still… the hair was all wrong and I just couldn’t see her as Vivian. In fact, after comparing their pictures side by side I think Vivian was much more glamorous but she wasn’t supposed to look that glamorous as Ethel… they let Ethel be glammed up in the later episodes and this was an issue that cropped up in the movie but still. The actress didn’t even try to do her voice and sounded nothing like Vivian so she just didn’t do it for me. The only actor that completely fit his part was JK Simmons as William Frawley. Maybe he was thinner than Frawley but he got the voice and mannerisms down pat that if I closed my eyes I could totally see Frawley speaking. Now if only the rest of the cast was as good as he was, the movie would have been at least partly bearable.

I gather this movie was intended to be a low budget TV movie because that’s exactly what it felt like. No effort put into it all because it went direct to streaming. 

Also there were so many historical inaccuracies, too many to list off but purist Lucy fans would spot the inconsistencies from a mile away (the most glaring issue was how Lucy and Desi met on the set of Too Many Girls in 1940).

Honestly… the costume department couldn’t have done a worse job…

Was this supposed to be Lucy’s natural brunette hair? Cause no…. no it’s not. 

Sorry but Kidman just couldn’t capture her beauty at all… 

The Communist speech was also really cheesy… the audience reactions could not be more forced and you can tell when they were told to gasp and look shocked. If Desi’s speech was staged for the cameras I could forgive the forced reactions but it was not staged and the audience irl was not expecting Desi’s speech. If you look up the actual address Desi gave to the studio audience it was much less dramatic and easier to suspend one’s disbelief.

The film offered nothing new either… in fact the crappy 1991 TV movie Before the Laughter did a more entertaining job of capturing Lucy and Desi’s rocky marriage than this movie did. I didn’t care for Maurice Benard as Desi but Frances Fisher KILLED it as Lucy. It was not a great movie by any means but I’d rather watch that one any day over this hot mess.

The only thing I can say that was positive was that it was a wise choice to zero in on a single week of filming the I Love Lucy show as opposed to showing their entire lives and careers. we see parts of that but there was too much to show in 2 hours so focusing on a single moment in their lives and what led up to that was for the best so that it didn’t feel too rushed. Biopics work best when you’re focusing on just one thing. But that being said the movie still fell flat on its character development and there was no emotional connection to Lucy and Desi at all. In 2 hours I felt like I still didn’t really know who these people were. It was a very surface level movie with no real deep commentary or themes or anything. I also hated the fake interviews with the writers as the movie’s opening it was very weak and cliche. They were trying to push this movie as a docu drama but it wasn’t. It was just another bad dramatization of two Hollywood Legends with no new insight. 

But then I didn’t really expect it to be a good movie so can’t say it met my expectations or really disappointed me because I had none going in.

I’m definitely going to watch the far more superior documentary Lucy and Desi directed by Amy Poehler. Docs are always 10000x better than crappy biopics.

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I don't regret watching the Lucy and Desi documentary last night. You bet your sweet buns I was a sobbing mess by the end of it (unlike the terrible Being the Ricardos which left no impact on me at all).

I've seen every doc made about Lucy and Desi and though there's nothing to be said that hasn't already been said it's just a great timeless story and that's why it's been told and re-told time and again.

This is definitely one of the better docs I've seen. Beautiful film by fans for fans that properly pays tribute to these Hollywood Icons.

The editing was also really cool. I like how the film didn't necessarily romanticize Lucy and Desi's relationship but it wasn't a tabloid expose or Hollywood Tell-All either. The film glosses over Desi's infidelity but didn't brush under the rug or sugar coat their marital woes. Still, it felt like a memorial to these Legends and wasn't keen on exposing ugly truths we're already familiar with. Rather than over dramatize their narrative it was just handled with a lot of care.

Lucy fans tend to want to believe in the fantasy that their marriage was a perfect one like the TV show but that couldn't be further from the truth. As their daughter Lucie so lovingly affirms her parents were soulmates in a sense but they were so much happier when they weren't together and just better off staying as friends. I think it's best that fans don't idealize them. They were just as human and deeply flawed as the rest of us but we can still appreciate them as entertainers. Their love story was tumultuous but they were a great acting team and that's what the film focuses on and the legacy they left behind.

Highly recommend for any die-hard I Love Lucy fans out there.

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Christina Ricci photographed by David Seinder, 1995

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1820s-1830s Satin silk dress with embroidery

(Turku Museums)

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Guelaguetza hairstyles by Netzahualxochitl Huerta featured in Vogue México shot by Luvia Lazo

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Gloria Dehaven on the set of Step Lively, 1944

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ENJOUÉ COLLECTIF Collection 2022 if you want to support this blog consider donating to: ko-fi.com/fashionrunways

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A Bluebell Girl from the Lido Nightclub in Paris adjusts her costume before appearing onstage at the Stardust hotel, Las Vegas.

Ralph Crane, Life, 1959

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Lucille Ball photographed by Eliot Elisofon, 1943

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Pepperell Sheets - 1948

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Ellie Grist photographed by Rachell Smith for Glass Magazine February 2022

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Deanna Durbin

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I’m Not Sure I Love This Lipstick Lucy

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A photo of Marilyn Monroe wearing a wedding dress from her first marriage. Taken by Richard C. Miller, 1946

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Lucille Ball, circa 1930s

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The Andy Griffith Show’s much-beloved ‘‘Christmas Story’‘ (S1, E11) aired 19 December 1960.  This was the one and only holiday-themed programme during the entire series’ eight-year run.  🎄

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Elizabeth Montgomery with a polar bear rug, 1963. Courtesy of Silver Screen Collection.