“Lucy and Desi,” which had a spectacular opening at the Sundance Film Festival, now has a whole new audience to enthrall on Amazon Prime. The famous sitcom “I Love Lucy” has been playing or streaming somewhere in the world since it concluded its original run from 1951 to 1957. But you’ve never seen Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in anything like this.
While Aaron Sorkin’s cutting media satire “Being the Ricardos” made a pointed media mockery of Ball and Arnaz’s brilliant partnership and disastrous marriage, director Amy Poehler uses the documentary genre to construct an emotional journey into the late couple’s highs and lows.
Poehler creates a truly poignant love tale between two television icons that only came close to actual happiness when they were faking it on camera using interviews with family and friends, old home movies and the voices of Ball and Arnaz themselves.
Ball and Arnaz ushered in a cultural shift. He’s a talented producer and inventor. She was a natural comedian whose comedic abilities were anything from effortless as she toiled away at technical perfection. “Being the Ricardos” is at its poorest when Kidman and Bardem try to keep up with Ball-enchantment. Arnaz’s Here, real-life footage says it all.
More importantly, Poehler depicts the love that existed between the two even after his infidelities caused a breakup, and they both married other people. There’s no way of knowing how much Poehler’s marriage to and eventual divorce from comic actor Will Arnett—they costarred as brief partners on “Arrested Development”—influenced Ball and Arnaz’s creative sparks and tensions. But you can sense it in the genuine emotion she delivers to these public personalities’ personal lives.
When the couple’s daughter Lucie vividly recreates the moment when her mother visits her dying father, and they laugh while watching old episodes of the sitcom created to rescue their marriage, it’s both amusing and heartfelt. Poehler takes us close to the flesh-and-blood realities beneath the mask of stardom in “Lucy and Desi.” You’ll be blinking tears away in between laughs.
Though the clips of our old companions Lucy and Desi have the melancholy required to pull off these attempts at sentimentality, the film is only the latest in a long line of bland paint-by-numbers canonizations for Boomer-beloved icons of the twentieth century’s latter half as a work unto itself. For all of the admiration for Ball’s indefatigable work ethic and explosive inventiveness, this memorial to her legacy is severely lacking in both.
Is Lucy and Desi available on Amazon Prime?
Amazon prime will be streaming Lucy and Desi. Additionally, there are several other films streaming on Prime. Our recommendations are The Voyagers, It’s a Wonderful Life, Notting Hill, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Is Lucy and Desi available on HBO Max?
HBO is not streaming Lucy and Desi. However, HBO’s subscribers can enjoy its other popular streams like Euphoria, When Harry Met Sally and Promising Young Woman.
Is Lucy and Desi available on Hulu?
Lucy and Desi is not available on Hulu. The new release line-up additionally includes Pam and Tommy, How I Met Your Father, Abbott Elementary, and Vikings.
Is Lucy and Desi available on Netflix?
Lucy and Desi are not available to stream on Netflix. However, other brilliant shows like The Power of The Dog, The Social Network, Tick, Tick, Boom, and much more are available.
Where to Watch Lucy and Desi?
Lucy and Desi will be premiering on March 4, 2022, available on Amazon Prime by purchasing a membership. We do not recommend illegal streaming and always suggest paying for the content you like to watch.