
Lucy and Desi chronicles the rise of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, the stars of the hit sitcom I Love Lucy, as they navigate Hollywood stardom. Ball was not hellbent on being a child star; she came to modeling through just wanting to make money to support her family. After she starred in a slew of B-movies and paid her dues as an up-and-coming actress, she was finally in a place where casting calls read “Lucile Ball type.” Her career was off and running, but no one was utilizing her comedy. That is, until she paired with Cuban musician and TV personality Desi Arnaz. The rest is history… except that history tends to end with I Love Lucy. In reality, the pair go on to not only revolutionize sitcoms, but form the world’s largest independent movie studio at the time.
Lucy and Desi is in top form when dissecting the communist feel of the nation during the 1950s. Arnaz was not born to humble roots. Along with generational wealth from the Bacardi rum company, his father was a renowned politician who was imprisoning communists until they imprisoned him. “Desi wasn’t an immigrant. He was a refugee.” Hearing Arnaz thank America publicly is a complex scene to watch because he didn’t leave his home — he was exiled. While America was in desperate need of a Cuban-American who was not a stereotype, the sophistication and talent he brought to the screen feels toxic when the cameras go dark. In total opposition, Ball registered as a communist to make her grandfather happy when she first started to vote. More than a decade later, that voting card with “Communist” in bold red would force them both to use every favor at their disposal to change public perception, including a call from the sitting president.
Poehler’s secret weapon is her ability to get inside the minds of her subjects. Their voices make for stirring narration, but footage of them when the director calls cut — and the façade that falls — drive home the message that, sadly, viewers got the best parts of their relationship. Poehler is by no means trying to paint a sad divorce story in Lucy and Desi. Rather, it’s the way she describes Ball’s rise to fame and Arnaz’s willingness to help her succeed that makes the ending of the documentary so beautiful to experience. The average celebrity divorce would be blessed to end as theirs did — working together, happily married to other people, still friends, and still in awe of one another. Ultimately, Poehler weaves a distinct and energetic portrait of Hollywood’s original renaissance woman in Lucy and Desi.