—
Is This Thing On?
Film
281 reactions from 4 sources (Bluesky, Mastodon, TMDB reviews, Lemmy) · newest Nov 2, 2026 · last updated Nov 3, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
—
No Data
Sentiment labels for these sources are still being hand-checked; no score yet.
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluesky * | 28 | 42 | 175 |
| Mastodon * | 2 | 1 | 26 |
| TMDB reviews * | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 1 | 2 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
What people are saying
A written summary appears once the title has a score.
At a glance
Ella McCay is a 2025 comedy drama film, directed by James L. Brooks, starring Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jack Lowden.
- 207 people have posted about this film on Bluesky, Mastodon, TMDB reviews, Lemmy
- posts span Jan 23, 2025 to Nov 2, 2026
Assembled from TMDB, Wikidata and Steam fields and our own counts, nothing written by a model. Method
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
281 public posts have mentioned Ella McCay so far, but it needs 10 opinionated reactions from checked sources before it gets a score. Seen it? Post your take.
The Experts
38%
avg of 3 sources
The People
—
audience score
Reactions
60 of 281 · most liked firstSee, exactly. I am talking about the title character of the 2025 film "Ella McCay," and her sex scarf. In a better world you would already know what I'm talking about bsky.app/profile/hvil...
neutral · AI labelView post →Ella McCay is a visible mess that includes one of the worst I'm-back-for-the-reshoot wigs in film history but the thing is, James L. Brooks has not one but four lifetime passes (MTM, Simpsons, Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News), so maybe you will watch this some night and remember those and smile.
neutral · AI labelView post →The thing about Ella McCay is that James L. Brooks clearly thinks he's making a movie about the mess his generation handed to Millennials and Zoomers, but making it a period film means Ella is firmly Gen-X and should just be listening to Soundgarden and indulging in nihilism constantly.
neutral · AI labelView post →‘Ella McCay’ is the weirdest movie I’ve seen since ‘Madame Web,’ skin-crawlingly uncanny for its entire runtime open.substack.com/pub/vinceman...
negative · AI labelView post →First look at James L. Brooks’ new film ‘ELLA MCCAY’ Starring Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ayo Edebiri, Rebecca Hall, Spike Fearn and Woody Harrelson. In theaters on September 19.
neutral · AI labelView post →The Simpsons released this original animated video to promote Ella McCay, a brand new movie directed by James L Brooks that's coming out in December 12nd by Disney via 20th Century Studios
neutral · AI labelView post →85 year old auteur delivers his new vanity film disaster Megalopolis: “Oh how sweet!” 85 year old auteur delivers his new vanity film disaster Ella McCay: “Hello, Human Resources?”
neutral · AI labelView post →What state is Ella McCay the governor of? Well, you will have to watch the movie itself to find out. Follow the clues.
neutral · AI labelView post →James L. Brooks tells us why he decided to make his first film in 15 years with ‘ELLA MCCAY’ “I have a day job with The Simpsons, at a certain point I just needed to write. I hadn’t written a movie in a long time.”
neutral · AI labelView post →I question whether all of the Ella McCay movie posters on Letterboxd are legit.
neutral · AI labelView post →New @junkfilterpod.bsky.social: at 34 years old, she became the governor of the state she was born and raised in. And now her life is a movie. Of course I’m referring to ELLA MCCAY. My guest? @mobute.bsky.social. CW: The sex scarf scene is discussed. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/j...
neutral · AI labelView post →The 10 films that influenced filmmaker James L. Brooks for Ella McCay 🎬 See what Brooks has to say about each film here: boxd.it/QtpNY/detail
neutral · AI labelView post →$1.3 is a great opening for a Canadian movie, that’s almost as much as Ella McCay made on not nearly as many screens
neutral · AI labelView post →I’ve spent 4-plus hours so far interviewing McT for the book and he is still sharp as a tack, smart as hell, obsessed with film theory & technique. He’s 11 years younger than James L. Brooks and if that dude can get a studio to finance ELLA MCCAY than this man should get to make any movie he wants
neutral · AI labelView post →So I went to wikipedia to read the plot of this movie, filmed in Providence. ELLA MCCAY IS THE GOVERNOR OF RHODE ISLAND?! AND SHE IS MISUSING GOVERNMENT PROPERTY BY HAVING SEX WITH HER HUSBAND IN THE BASEMENT OF THE STATE HOUSE?! Right underneath the nose of Independent Man. smdh
neutral · AI labelView post →James L. Brooks tells us how he balanced drama with comedy in ‘ELLA MCCAY’, his first film in 15 years. “We’re talking about real stuff. We’re talking about real lives at stake. There are things on the line in this movie. But we never forgot that we’re doing a comedy.”
neutral · AI labelView post →I don't think ELLA MCCAY works, and I'm not surprised it bombed at the box office. But this analysis of why the film failed with audiences makes me want to scream. variety.com/2025/film/bo...
negative · AI labelView post →Special edition of NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE where the boys travel to 2008 to stop Ella McCay from becoming the governor of the state where she was born and raised
neutral · AI labelView post →incredible work by the Ella McCay team that they cast someone named Emma Mackey and weren't like "we should maybe rename the character/movie"
neutral · AI labelView post →As America's foremost BROADCAST NEWS lover, it gives me no pleasure whatsoever to confirm that ELLA MCCAY is bafflingly bad. crookedmarquee.com/review-ella-...
negative · AI labelView post →Ella McCay The Band The Show The Movie
neutral · AI labelView post →Emma Mackey's TJ Maxx Anne Hathaway quality only ads to the sense Ella McCay is not a real movie. Like Ella McCay is the name of a fake movie star in an A-Team episode. Ella McCay is played by Markie Post and the team has to protect her from a corrupt studio boss.
neutral · AI labelView post →You could never make a movie called ELLA MCCAY today
neutral · AI labelView post →I do not think James L Brooks has lost his fastball, but there’s a shot in Ella McCay where I thought, “oh, here’s the subplot that’s going to ruin the movie,” and I was right
neutral · AI labelView post →“Cloying” is really the only way we encounter that verb. In its gerund form. The passive voice form. But sometime you see a movie that demand the active voice. ELLA MCCAY cloys. It cloys hard. It cloys with reckless abandon. It cloys unalloyed. It cloys with gravid intensity. It cloys.
negative · AI labelView post →I watched the first 20 minutes of “Ella McCay” and was not prepared for it to be a movie about a family of wigs riding famous actors around a nameless state in New England.
negative · AI labelView post →"I was wholly involved, engaged and intrigued watching ELLA McCAY. We as a race should be more embarrassed by our obsession with finding new cool, cinematic ways to represent bullet trajectories." I am a friend of ELLA McCAY! My new review at TSW! tremblesighwonder.com/2026/02/15/e...
positive · AI labelView post →Just a reminder that if you write about the movie, there are stylized quotation marks around the title of “Ella McCay”, this is at the insistence of the director and the studio
neutral · AI labelView post →Watched Ella McCay James L Brooks returns with a new movie that may be filled with plenty of laughs with the character writing and great performances throughout but the plot itself is all over the place with what it wants to do and what tone it wants to be
neutral · AI labelView post →Oop its tales FROM earthsea lol admittedly ive got low expectations for it but also like what if i come out being like its my favorite ghibli movie ever. Ella McCay is my number one movie of 2025 ive justified far worse contrarian opinions
positive · AI labelView post →We caught Ella McCay fever this month on @talksimpsonspod.bsky.social! We discuss the Simpsons-heavy promotion of that film, plus a ton of other news to wrap up 2025! Listen early & ad-free to our monthly community chat, Talk to the Audience?!? www.patreon.com/posts/144320...
neutral · AI labelView post →Box Office: ‘Zootopia 2’ Returns to No. 1 as ‘Ella McCay’ Suffers One of Worst Debuts Ever for Disney With $2 Million.
neutral · AI labelView post →If you told me Ella McCay is the star of the new James L Brooks film EMMA MACKEY I’d be like “sure”
neutral · AI labelView post →This movie is making ELLA MCCAY look like AVATAR 3
neutral · AI labelView post →If my posts could make a movie a hit then ELLA MCCAY would have made 500 million dollars
neutral · AI labelView post →Ella McCay was meant to run in real time, like the Johnny Depp film Nick of Time, but it was re-edited after test audiences felt it made the politics "too intense."
neutral · AI labelView post →Can’t believe we finally got an Ella McCay solo film after all the team-ups and it tanked this badly.
neutral · AI labelView post →FFC review: ELLA McCAY, by Walter Chaw (@mangiotto.bsky.social). filmfreakcentral.net/2025/12/ella...
neutral · AI labelView post →At North Shore Movies this week I reviewed ELLA MCCAY, which is like a Preston Sturges movie made by aliens.
neutral · AI labelView post →Still cannot wrap my head around casting an actress named Emma Mackey in a film called ELLA MCCAY.
neutral · AI labelView post →Me when The Secret Agent and Ella McCay leave Toronto movie theatres before I am recovered from pneumonia
neutral · AI labelView post →Ella McCay is not a real movie, and despite having seen the trailer at least a dozen times in theaters I will not be persuaded otherwise
neutral · AI labelView post →Emma Mackey and Jamie Lee Curtis lead an all-star line-up in the first trailer for Ella McCay, James L. Brooks' first film in 15 years. Watch the trailer: www.empireonline.com/movies/news/...
neutral · AI labelView post →I had to write about watching ELLA MCCAY for the first time and how its fantastical depiction of local government in 2008 feels very silly and simplistic in the year of our lord 2026. thefilmmaven.com/ella-mccay-r...
negative · AI labelView post →If you’re a Canadian fan of the MCU* then Disney+ has a treat for you tonight - stream the movie critics are calling “a new comedy” from the director of Broadcast News and Spanglish! ELLA MCCAY, now streaming!
neutral · AI labelView post →Now watching: ELLA MCCAY (2025) #filmsky
neutral · AI labelView post →god imagine watching a camrip of Ella McCay with onscreen ads for casinos throughout the film
neutral · AI labelView post →Ella McCay made me feel I was in a simulation the whole time being watched by some unknown force as I experienced their simulacrum. The movie Marge and Lisa write together in a Simpsons ep where they see a bad movie about an idealistic young woman and think they can do better.
negative · AI labelView post →Bad news for Ella McCay Nation: the movie leaves Toronto tomorrow
neutral · AI labelView post →In a world of monetisted 'hate-for-cash' reviewing on YouTube, X and elsewhere, a female-friendly drama was always likely to get torn apart. Hopefully Ella McCay will find its audience in time; James L Brooks' wholesome, warm film deserves a little appreciation 4/5 film-authority.com/2025/12/15/e...
positive · AI labelView post →ELLA MCCAY is James L. Brooks' first film in 15 years, and let's just say it's not as good as it gets. Or even "good." My review of this condescending and unconvincing "political' "dramedy" is at @thewrap.com!
negative · AI labelView post →Working on a sight-unseen grand unified theory of "Is This Thing On?" and "Ella McCay" being two versions of the same movie, watch this space.
neutral · AI labelView post →I'm excited to watch Emma Mackey in ELLA MCCAY. Also, I'm announcing I've cast Samara Weaving in my new film, SAHARA LEAVING.
neutral · AI labelView post →Will Grocerycore be discussed on the upcoming @junkfilterpod.bsky.social episode about Ella McCay? A movie that uses Fleetwood Mac in the trailer?
neutral · AI labelView post →You could never make a movie called ELLA MCCAY today
neutral · AI labelView post →Wait, how is there already a third Ella McCay movie
neutral · AI labelView post →If you are in France this weekend please take photos of the Ella McCay poster if you see one, if you see the movie let us know how it goes
neutral · AI labelView post →As of tonight if you want to see ELLA MCCAY in a movie theatre the answer is “no”
neutral · AI labelView post →Similarly refreshed by this and Ella McCay in a way where it's a movie without a ghost/monster or a murder. Not even in a prudish way just like. It's nice to see a story that's for grown ups that doesn't need to wave "elevated horror" shit or a gun in my face to try and keep the audience's attention
positive · AI labelView post →Emma Mackey is Ella McCay. George Clooney is Jay Kelly. Soon every actor that can open a movie will play a titular character called what my mom thinks their name is
neutral · AI labelView post →
Posts are quoted from public profiles with links to the original. Want yours removed? Contact us.
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
