Why Ella McCay is the Best Movie In 2025

By: Rashida Ashley

As many of us know, the movies that have seemed to hit their mark among the crowd so far this year have been Wicked: For Good as well as Zootopia 2. After having watched both movies, I wanted something to satiate my appetite of lessons learned that can be put in my pocket for life. It was to my happiness I came across the movie Ella McCay, as directed by James L. Brooks. What appears to be the best movie in 2025.

Ella is played by Emma Mackey (who starred as Maeve Wiley in Sex Education) who, from a young age had to navigate heartache with the unfaithfulness of her father, the later passing of her mom, and family drama while keeping a nurturing eye to her younger brother Casey and Aunt Helen. As she grows older, her dedication to her studies and making the world a better place leads her to eventually be appointed as governor.

Some hardcore fans of Elphaba and Glinda from Wicked: For Good and the yearning for the subtleties of romance fans of Zootopia 2 might strongly disagree and debate that their respective movies are in fact THE movies of 2025. Wicked: For good has romance, betrayl, public figures, witchcraft, and politics. Zootopia 2 has our favorite animal duo partnership in a world of "animal-racism,"politics, and of course the alleged iconic love? confession of Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde.

While I can appreciate the nuances of both movies and have quite a few thoughts on Wicked: For Good and even Zootopia 2, Ella McCay is a movie for people like me who want a more direct approach from cinema and beyond. If you read my previous article, "A Response to Vogue's "Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?". You would know my thoughts on the state of romance as I have known it to be and the lengths people go for romantic partnership in the name of asset acquisition. In the movie Ella McCay, Ella along with her brother Casey, goes through something reminisent to what I was alluding to in my previous article.

As I'm not one for spoliers but can't help to tell a story as truly as possible, Ella's husband ends their marriage by threatening to tell a particular secret of theirs if she does not basically tell the public that they should both be considered public leaders of Ella's respective field. This decision on her then husband's part, along with his mother, comes shortly after her being promoted and appointment governor. Naturally, with her being the woman she is, Ella tells him to go through with it stating "you wouldn't be doing this to me if you even liked me."

I sat in the movie theatre twice to see Ella McCay and both times I was alone in a room filled with empty seats. I knew full well, and from seeing what people wanted to see by the rooms and movies that were booked, where all the moviegoers were. While they sat through Wicked: For Good, and Zootopia 2, alone I watched Ella reclaim her power from other powers of authority, her father, and ex husband by teaming up with her Aunt Helen and Estelle. She is able to manage her cool in a sense through her parent's rocky relationship, her mother's death, her brother's extreme anxiety derived allegedly from being place in military school at the age of 8 and the death of his mom, her relationship with her boyfriend turned husband turned ex-husband, all the while bubbling up to the beginnings of being appointed governor.

"Don't be sad. Don't be mad," says Aunt Helen.

"What does that leave me with?" asks Ella.

"Bullet proof."

Aunt Helen instructs this to Ella as she walks into her Aunt's bar to speak with her father, a father she has no intentions or desire to speak to because of the trauma he has caused and continues to selfishly imbue on Ella and her brother Casey, and even her Aunt Helen at their current age. The question was, will Ella continue the trauma that all started with her father through her now ex-husband or break the pattern?

In the movie Ella's ex-husband claims that he is nothing like Ella's father, who cheated when he was unhappy. When he is unhappy, he stated, he leaves. Looking deeper it's all just the same. With Ella's father having many women in his bed even to the point of her mother's death and her ex-husband looking for a title and threatening to leave if he didn't get it, both men can be seen as desiring status no matter what it achieved them in its variety pack. With that being said, another question comes to mind brought on by Ella's ex-husband. In their dispute of whether or not to include him as public leader under Ella's appointment, Ella's ex-husband asks if he doesn't have a title, what is the point what does that make him. To which she responds, and forgive my spoiling "a husband."

This is the unmasking on our longstanding ideals for romance and partnership I was referring to in my article, "A Response to Vogue's "Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?". Ella McCay in a way strips her ex-husband of any benefit to love outside of what should be the love shared between them. As she painfully finds out in doing so, there was no love there at its core. For the first time, I am sure her ex-husband felt the weight of vulnerability women have felt for years with the search of a partner to carry on their family legacy and support them individually. Thus being unable to, as his mom put it, "Be the man his father never was."

At the movie's end Ella's father confronts her announcing he is doing her a "favor" which is offering her a chance to forgive him. In the end, Ella's father is unforgiven and her ex-husband ends up in a police car. In a way symbolizing the accountability men must inevitably take for their hand in a legacy of wrongdoings towards women and their children. After standing up to her ex-husband she finds herself in her Aunt's house screaming and letting all the built up years of pressure and anger and trauma go. Her Aunt finds herself doing the same and together they scream, relieved. After, Ella is able to perserve her title, stand up to higher authories, and even succeed on the longstanding plans she had to benefit the children in her community, which based on her report at the end benefited the success of the community overall.

What I loved most about Ella McCay is the love story between her brother, Casey McCay and Susan. Her brother is a hardworking young man spending most of his time pressured to meet deadlines. We later find out about not only his anxiety which has led to him staying homebound for over a year, but also about his separation with a young woman he fell in love with. Due to circumstances of discomfort Casey felt compelled to separate himself from Susan, making her unable to contact him or vice versa for over a year. One day Casey reaches out to his sister for help to which he tells her what happened between them and later decides to reach out to Susan and through much overwhelm on both parties asks her to be his girlfriend. On his journey to Susan's home, he turns left on Hope Street, a symbolic gesture on director James L. Brooks' part.

"There is no opposite word for trauma but hope comes close,"says our narrator Estelle.

Between all three movies, generational trauma is evident, yet with the two of them it is not completely healed. With Wicked: For Good. Elphaba sacrifices being viewed as "good" from her community in the name of love while Glinda was granted power on Elphaba's part in exchange for the image of being with Prince Fiyero. Even more so the community along with its children bears the trauma of never knowing the truth and basing their admiration for Glinda on a lie. Zootopia 2 comes close with the truama and love confession from Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps, but the movie ends with Judy replaying Nick's confession from the carrot recording device and not in the arms of the actual person himself.

While all three movies depicts the lengths a group of individuals will go for asset acquisition by utilizing trauma along the paths of power and love, it is evident that the movie Ella McCay goes a step further. As Estelle suggests, maybe there is hope for love and what it means to love someone and be in partnership with them. With the romance between Casey McCay and Susan, we for a brief yet intensely powerful moment see the fledglings of a genuine romance of equal partnership. From what can be seen Casey is a lowkey millionaire living by himself and Susan lives by herself suggesting both of their independence and assets. It took over a year for Casey to overcome his anxiety and tell Susan how he felt about her despite her feeling overwhelmed too. This could be the start of what genuine love looks like when assets aren't in question and hearts are at the core.

In the end, hope comes close.

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