With the puzzling tone of a lighthearted rom com, but the content of a muddled family drama covered with a flimsy veneer of a political comedy without the jokes, “Ella McCay” (2025) may be the worst movie of 2025, which is an impressive feat since I saw quite a few Kickstarter movies. Emma Mackey plays the titular character as a bright young policy wonk and lawyer who gets the opportunity of a lifetime: to become governor of a state not credited as Rhode Island, which is where the film was shot. Unfortunately, her rise is the exact time that all the crap hits the fan. When stuck in between a rock and a hard place, what will Ella do? Who did writer and director James L. Brooks imagine as the audience for this film?

With Julie Kavner, i.e. the voice of Marge Simpson, narrating as Ella’s assistant, Estelle Roth, Ella is supposed to be considered the salt of the earth. “Ella McCay” is impressive because the entire cast is committed to delivering lines as if they were bubbly and upbeat, not the worst dialogue ever, and give no signs that someone is possibly threatening their lives if they signal to anyone that they are hostages. Mackey is a great actor and is practically Margot Robbie’s twin sister. Hell, she was in a great movie earlier this year, “Hot Milk” (2025). She does her best to pretend that she is a flustered woman, which stylists decided meant no conditioner for her hair. To be fair, Mackey is not the only actor saddled with the worst hair style ever. It would be easier to list who came out unscathed. It is hard to root for Ella because with or without the chaos swirling around her, she is a mess. Brooks uses various contrivances to make the character loopy without making it her fault for making bad decisions. When her head is on her shoulders, she is not exactly killing it. Mackey plays her character as if she was a younger person, not a thirty-four-year-old lawyer who made it to Lieutenant Governor. It is as if she is doing an early Hugh Grant impression.

Let’s be generous and not blame any of the actors regardless of whether their body of work is known or not. It felt as if Brooks directed everyone to act as if they were in a wacky sitcom delivering lines clunkier than a bag of rocks with composer Hans Zimmer scoring every scene so moviegoers know how to feel. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Aunt Helen with her customary enthusiasm and strong presence, but the character is a frustrating mix of supportive and sabotaging. She keeps reintroducing Ella’s dad, Eddie (Woody Harrelson), into her life. Harrelson pays the bills playing problematic men, so it is a light day at the office for him. “Ella McCay” seems as if it was supposed to be about the titular character not repeating the same mistakes as her mother (my fave, Rebecca Hall, who delivers the best performance and is only fourteen years older than her onscreen daughter), who kept ruining her life when she put up with his bad behavior and chose him above herself and her children. Ella’s husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), is a bon vivant on a good day and a self-serving saboteur with a meddling mother, Martha (Becky Ann Baker). Then there is an awkward storyline with her little brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), that randomly turns into his love story with Susan (Ayo Edebiri). In another context, Susan blocked this guy after going to Reddit and asking about the situation in AITA forum. Casey lives on Hope Street! Hope Street! The entire brother storyline should have stayed on the cutting room floor, but that further detour is so sauceless that it screams Edebiri owed a favor to someone in the cast, or she genuinely wanted to work with someone on the cast. Everyone has bills to pay.

All these storylines have the potential to balloon into full-fledged political scandals for an assortment of reasons. “Ella McCay” is not supposed to be based on a real person, but if this movie exists, it feels as if the prompt was to offer a list of political no-nos then reverse engineer how to make it not seem like the fault of the elected official. There is a sex scandal, indulgent government spending, drug use, cover ups and inappropriate use of government funds. Sounds exciting? It is not. It is contrived and annoying. If a real-life politician had this movie made to defuse a situation so they could run for higher office, I hope that everyone sold their souls for a pretty penny.

Besides Estelle, State Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani) watches over Ella like a guardian angel. His facial expressions are better than anything written for his character. As you hear the lines, your brain will immediately forget them even though they are supposed to show the bond between the two, and how normal and down-to-earth Ella is. It is a credit to Mackey and Nanjiani that they actually act as if they have a decent camaraderie. The film is so desperately devoid of a single interesting plot that I began to root for the film to become the political version of “The Bodyguard” (1992), especially considering how he feels compelled to rescue her. It is over-the-top dramatic.

“Ella McCay” has a random scene where poor Nash wants to help a coworker, State Trooper Alexander (Joey Brooks), but it could put Governor McCay under further scrutiny, a sword of Damocles that never descends. Is this the real reason that the film exists? So Albert L. Brooks’ son could get screentime? Even so, the movie did not have to be bad. “As Good As It Gets” (1997) was filled with an oddball, unlikely cast of characters, but it worked. Is it AI? This movie made “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (2025) seem shorter. If you want proof that “Parks and Recreation” and “Veep” were brilliant, watch this. It is not as easy as it looks to make a political backdrop funny, incisive and interesting.

If there is a sliver of a good idea, it is the idea that Ella has brilliant ideas, but politics is a people game. She sees people’s needs as a collective but is oblivious to the needs of the people who are in front of her who either want to go home or get in from the cold, not listen to her monologue for hours. Politics becomes a skill and bestows the power to do things. Governor Bill (Albert Brooks, no relation) gets some of the best lines and always seems as if he could turn into a villain, which sadly never happens. Fun fact: the actual Secretary of Interior during President Barack Hussein Obama’s first term was Ken Salazar, who shares zero traits with Bill. Unfortunately, the film is not really interested in politics and what government can do. It may not fully understand it, but it thinks that it means that every waking moment, a person just cannot help but spout policy in any context. Also, there is a laughingly inaccurate depiction of a fictional nonprofit called Legal Aid Tenants Aid, and as a former tenant advocate, it does not look like a PBS fund raiser with a wholesome sense of community.

If you feel compelled to see “Ella McCay” for some reason, and you have other options, choose the other options and make Brooks’ film your last resort. Try not to see it in theaters. Pay as little as possible. Borrow it at the library. Wait until it becomes available for free. Imagine having a ton of For Your Consideration films to watch, and you waste your time watching dreckitude. Complete waste of time!