‘’Some people in this industry are still saying, ‘’we got to get big stars, we got to get big stars.’’ Well, we’d have to dig some of them up cause most of them are dead.’’ ~ Lucie Arnaz

The new documentary from the director Amy Poehler, offers a fresh insight on the relationship of two entertainment industry stars, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, giving us an opportunity to find out more about them and their lives.

With many hours of tapes and footage combined, a thoughtful story is told on how work can connect and at the same time distance people from each other. It shows that there is always some hope, if mutual effort is put into a relationship. This film accentuates each person’s dreams and life experiences, including the good and the bad ones. Along their professional success, we really get to see the connection between Lucille and Desi, and how their actions and surroundings affect each other.

Characters and actors:

• Lucille Ball – Self (archive footage)
• Desi Arnaz – self (archive footage)
• Lucie Arnaz – self
• Charo – self
• Carol Burnett – self

Plot – The core plot of the documentary was mostly focused on the pairs relationship rather than work. A nice element of the film was the portrayal of Lucille Ball – how she was not afraid to look ugly and how she really built her success and finally got recognized for her talent, skill set. An odd feeling was that sometimes Desi felt like a side character. It could be just the change in the duo’s energy dynamic, but it still felt a little out of place the more we thought about it.

In our opinion, the unity of their ideas and passion, that they both shared, was very well highlighted throughout the movie. It’s always hard to get everything 100% accurate within documentaries, but with the base material that the production team had, they did an honorable job which made the viewers appreciate the stars even more. The rating – 8,4/10.

Acting – Since it was a documentary, there weren’t really people who were ‘’acting’’. There were mostly only video and audio tapes of Lucille and Desi from their television days, along with videos of close friends and relatives talking about them, and answering some of the interviewer’s questions.

Pacing – The start of the documentary was honestly really refreshing – watching a nicely balanced storyline slowly unfold and present information in an interesting way. Approximately an hour in, everything felt complete, as if we had already reached the ending or the culmination of the film. With the illuminating movement of the events, that we really loved, the speed of the movie was a little bit confusing. We rate it an 8/10.

Cinematography –The cinematography in this film was very balanced. The editing wasn’t overdone and the effects fit nicely to the atmosphere of the documentary. We give it a 9,3/10.

“I Love Lucy was never just a title,” wrote Desi Arnaz. This movie was made to show what people felt along with what they did. Significant innovations and technical growth in television history is also a great aspect to pay attention to while watching this film. The documentary may not thoroughly focus on it but it’s a nice acknowledgement that can be made.

In conclusion, we think that this film was really interesting and even though we aren’t the biggest fans of watching documentaries, we enjoyed the film. We rate it an 8,1/10.

–  Cinema detectives