Genre: Romance/Drama/Comedy
Director: Cameron Crowe
Writer: Chad Taylor
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, David Letterman, Lee Pace, Hank Azaria, Diana Ross
Plot: 1957 (in black and white). Dorothy Daniels (Emma Stone) is on top of the world. A comedienne by trade, her sitcom Dotty’s World is the #1 show in America and co-stars her real life husband Peter (Lee Pace). The couple has a five-year-old son named Petey, who can often be found on set observing the production. On screen, they play the ideal couple who are absolutely smitten with one another.
2021 (in color). Henry (Andrew Garfield) lives in Brooklyn with his curmudgeon father Albert (David Letterman). Albert has early-onset dementia and spends most of the days watching reruns of shows from the 1950s (his childhood). Henry asks why Albert can’t watch something else, like sports. Albert reminds his son that he’s not watched baseball since 1957 - when the Dodgers left town. Henry rolls his eyes before seeing a reminder on his phone about a date. Henry’s friend has set him up on a blind date and Albert gives him dating advice before he leaves - albeit not up-to-date to modern dating practices.
At the date, the woman asks what he does for a living and he tells her he does freelance writing for news outlets but he’s not had solid employment for a while - perhaps a few too honest on his part but that’s Henry. She asks if he is happy and he says no. When she asks what he’d like to do, he says that he does like to write but moreso as a biographer. She asks why he isn’t doing that then and he makes up an excuse but it does leave him a bit existential about this place in his life. They go their separate ways, the date went alright but probably won’t be followed up on. He goes back to his home and makes some coffee as Albert watches an episode of Dotty’s World.
From the kitchen, Henry watches over his dad’s shoulder and finds himself chuckling along with the studio audience - even though he always thought he was too young for this type of humor. In fact, Albert catches this laughter and jokingly points out his son’s hypocrisy. As Henry’s eyes are locked on Dorothy on the TV screen, he begins googling about her life. He finds that, despite being one of the biggest stars of the 50s, Dorothy was very private and not much is known about her personal life. As such, there’s never been a definitive tell-all biography of Dorothy Daniels since her death in 1983, either. The camera focuses on the TV set as we are transported back to 1957.
After the camera stops rolling, Dorothy exhales and exits the set. The show’s producer Sy (Hank Azaria) pulls her aside and reminds her that she has a promotional photoshoot the next day. Afterwards, Peter gives her a kiss as they tell the crew goodbye for the day and head home. At their apartment building, the family is greeted by the friendly doorman Ray (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). He begins to tell them how he watched last week’s episode of the show, which seems to irritate Peter. Dorothy, on the other hand, makes smalltalk with Ray while they wait for the elevator.
In their luxury apartment, Dorothy begins making dinner - something she insists on doing to keep some sense of normalcy amongst stardom. Meanwhile, Peter tells her not to egg on the doorman - so much of their day is already devoted to the TV show and the home should be a break from that. Dorothy says they could move out to the suburbs or, even better, quit doing the show. He senses some sarcasm in her voice and grows angry, knocking over a pot of hot water on the stove which burns Dorothy’s hand. He is quick to apologize and says that he is just worried that this sense of celebrity is going to affect their son’s development. She is in tears and asks if he thinks she’s not worried about that, too. She tells him that he can make dinner tonight and storms out the door as Peter lets out a frustrated sigh.
In the present, Henry begins looking up Dorothy’s living relatives to see about acquiring her life rights to write a book about her. While a life rights agreement isn’t necessary, Henry tells his father that it could prevent him from being sued for libel. Albert shrugs and says that may stand in the way of him being completely honest but Henry says he wants to do this the right way. Dorothy and Peter’s son Petey died a few years ago so there is no lead there. Albert suggests maybe Petey had children and he did have one daughter. Henry looks her up and finds that Grace Daniels (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is living in L.A. He can’t find much about her online, indicating that she has distanced herself from her celebrity lineage and lives a secluded lifestyle like her grandmother.
He tells his dad that he will be leaving for a few days and that the visiting nurse will be taking care of him. Without any contact information, he decides to visit a clothing boutique that Grace manages in hopes of seeing her there. When he enters, she asks if he is buying for someone (since they don’t have men’s clothing) and he explains that he is actually there to see her. He begins to explain that he is interested in writing a biography about Dorothy and his inquiry into life rights. She swiftly turns him down, saying that her grandmother was a private person and she wants to continue to respect that privacy. When Henry leaves, he is clearly a bit frustrated. He decides to visit the UCLA library anyway to begin to conduct preliminary research into her life as they house papers from Sy’s personal collection. One of the first things he notices is the recurring theme of marital struggles of Dorothy and Peter.
Back in ‘57, Dorothy heads down to the ground level for a smoke. Ray smiles when he sees her but then sees that her hand is turning red - although she plays it off. He quickly offers his assistance in nursing it. She wants to tough it out but he says it is part of his job. He takes her to the back maintenance room where she admits that it hurts more than she is letting on, prompting them both to laugh. She begins to ask about his life outside of his job, taking him by surprise. He doesn’t seem star-struck, instead openly honest about how he seems to cycle through a new job every year. But this job actually makes him happy because it involves social interaction. They continue talking and the topic turns to Dorothy’s life - not anything work-related for once. She opens up about her marital struggles with Peter but says they can’t get a divorce since that could cancel their show.
Ray checks on her hand as they talk and removes the ice pack, briefly causing their hands to touch. They both freeze and seem short on breath as they look eye-to-eye. Peter seems discontent as he drinks his alcohol and stares out into the night sky. This is cross-cut with Dorothy and Ray having an affair in that small room. Ray tells her that he feels fulfilled when he is with her and asks if she has ever thought of running away together. He knows that he is setting himself up for disappointment as she says that she is too much of a public figure and has a family to raise. But asks if he is OK with continuing this even without that end scenario and he shakes his head yes while kissing her on the forehead.In the present, Henry goes through some of Sy’s personal memos that hint to the existence of an affair. This intrigues him but he is worn out from the day’s worth of research and decides to spend the night by going to a Dodgers game (although he does not plan to tell his father this).
At the game, Henry is walking to his seat when he notices someone that looks like Grace in the next section over. He approaches her with her group of friends and they both look surprised, with her jokingly(?) asking if he is stalking her. He insists that he is not and is just catching a game while in town. She asks if he is a fan and he starts to talk about his father’s complicated history with the franchise, which in turn turns into a conversation about him caring for his father. She mentions that there is an open seat next to her and says he can sit here if he wants. He takes her up on the offer but she notices that he has a baseball glove with him. She asks what that is for and he says to catch a foul ball. She said she didn’t know adults did that. He asks what is he supposed to do if a ball comes at them - catch it with his hands? She shrugs her shoulders and says that’s what she plans to do. They both crack a smile, clearly on better terms than their first meeting.
The next day, Henry is wrapping up his preliminary L.A. research when he gets a phone call from an unknown number. He answers and, to his surprise, it is Grace. She says that she had a good time yesterday and it had her thinking over what they discussed in their first meeting. She invites him to coffee and he is quick to accept. At their meeting, she asks him more about what he wants to accomplish by writing Dorothy’s biography. He explains that he feels like it is a story that people will want to hear and telling someone’s life story is something he has always aspired to do. But that he didn’t want to do some sort of “unauthorized biography” type of deal. She admits that their meeting yesterday won her over a bit and she trusts him more now than she initially thought. He promises to her that he will honor her grandmother’s legacy, leaving out the bit that he has discovered about an affair. She gives him the greenlight and he thanks her before asking if she’d have any interest in a fourth encounter at some point down the line. She suddenly changes tone and says that she has a boyfriend. He begins to apologize before she says that she was just pulling his leg and says that sounds nice - maybe she’ll come to New York at some point to see how the book is progressing.
With a pep in his step, Henry goes to work on drafting chapter outlines for the book and the research materials needed. During this montage, he follows the lead on the potential affair and this leads him to records about the apartment building she lived in during this period. While he is on the lookout for any suspicious visitors, he doesn’t realize that Ray is under his nose the whole time. He finally remembers something mentioned in Sy’s communications that lead him to looking into the doorman’s background. This transitions us back to the Fifties, where Peter and Dorothy head home from a day of shooting. Dorothy and Ray share a brief look that Peter doesn’t catch on to. This cuts to the next day, when Petey is in school and Peter is away having a fling of his. Dorothy takes Ray up to her apartment when she gets off of work.
Meanwhile, Sy gets a tip from a tabloid journalist contact that the paper is going to run a story on Dorothy Daniels having an affair with a black doorman who works at her apartment. Sy grows alert and begs them not to run it. He offers a hefty sum if they will stay mum on this while he takes care of it. He gets in contact with a studio fixer in Manhattan to deal with this issue. As Henry does his research, he finds that Ray died in 1959 - prompting even more curiosity. He looks up to see if he has any living relatives to interview and discovers that his younger sister is still alive.
At her home, Grace is clearly smitten with Henry. As she looks into him a bit, she finds a few articles about his published works. He had a hit fiction novel five years ago but controversy ensued when it was discovered that he had lied about some of his biographical details including his education and family lineage (seemingly to seem more of an interesting public figure). This is an immediate red flag to a visibly frustrated Grace. She calls him and he answers, expecting this to be to set up their next “date”. Instead, she is angry at him for not telling her about his background and that this is clearly worrisome as he could make lies about her grandmother’s life. He promises that he has learned from his mistakes and this is his attempt to make right but she is not having it. She tells him that she is not OK with him writing the book.
Henry sits down to watch the news with his father. Albert asks how his book is going and Henry lies, saying it is progressing nicely. He then grows irritated at his tendency to fall back into lying like that and admits that he and Grace had a falling out over past controversy. Albert invites his son to sit down and says that he knows that his past mistakes must be gnawing at him. But so does everyone’s. He makes a joke that he is glad that he is starting to forget things so that he’ll forget some of his own missteps (prompting Henry to tell his dad not to joke about his illness). Albert then gives him a motivational pep talk with a side of wise-cracking, saying that his son looked so happy when talking about this girl so put the project on the backburner and go make things right.
Henry tries to call Grace but she won’t pick up. He decides to fly to L.A. to apologize in person. He once again visits her shop and she is adamant that she does not want to see him. He tells her that he is a professional liar, something that he is still trying to recover from. He sees this as a reclamation project to help fix his name and tell a story that needs to be told. And since he no longer wants to hold back the truth, he tells her about the affair that he discovered. Instead of upset, Grace becomes more interested. He continues to explain and says he knows this may tarnish Dorothy's TV-manufactured image as the perfect housewife. Grace shakes her head and says this will make the public understand her more as a human - and the difficulties of being a woman during that time. When he says that he plans on meeting with Ray’s sister, she asks if she can come along. He says of course and that there is one more secret that he doesn’t want to keep hidden: he likes her and is afraid of doing something that will mess that up. She smiles before poking fun at him once more and asks if he really thought that was a secret.
Henry and Grace meet with Ray’s younger sister Anette (Diana Ross). She is very gracious and is happy to meet one of Dorothy Daniels’s relatives. Anette says that her brother never told her about an affair with Dorothy. But she does recall some of the troubles he was going through during that time....
When Ray goes to work, he is pulled aside by his boss. He is informed that they’ve been told that he has been having sexual relations with one of the residents and that this is unacceptable per his contract. He is fired despite his pleas for a second chance. As he applies for similar jobs, he finds himself essentially blacklisted from the profession. Walking home from a failed job interview, he passes an appliance store that has a TV set in the window front showing an episode of Dotty’s World.
Peter takes Dorothy out to dinner to apologize to her. He says that his frustrations have just grown out of a worry for his place in the family because he knows the show can’t go on forever. When Dotty’s World ends, she will be able to do another show or do stand-up gigs. But he will always be Dorothy’s husband. She feels a bit heartbroken to hear this. She says that they can make enough money that they can live quietly where their celebrity status won’t matter and Petey can live a normal life. Peter promises that he will get his drinking under control. They hold hands, although seemingly more out of empathy than passion. Upon entering their apartment building, there is a strange feeling in the air with Ray’s sudden absence. Dorothy wants to ask the building manager about it but knows how that would look. At night, she looks longingly outside the window.
Anette explains that her brother would return to hard physical labor and died in a factory accident a few years later. Grace holds Anette’s hand as she recounts this. She says that her brother was one of the gentlest people she’d ever known but he seemed off in those last few years. Like a part of him was broken. She reveals that she is actually very happy that her brother have a place in this book and, on a larger scale, as a part of Dorothy’s life story. She tells them they should come visit her more often and maybe give a free copy of the book when it is released. Henry says of course while Grace says she’d love to, although she thinks she’ll be spending more time on the east coast in the foreseeable future. Anette smiles, thinking the two of them are cute as a couple.
A few years later, the book has been released. The reviews are pretty good but, at the very least, it has helped wash the taste of Henry’s previous controversy out of everyone’s mouth. And it has also led to a renewed interest in Dotty’s World, which has its streaming rights sold to Netflix. There is even talk of a biopic being made of Dorothy’s life, which Grace is a little more hesitant to OK unless it is in the right hands. Meanwhile, Albert - a bit frailer but still kicking - is lounging in his recliner watching the show on his usual channel as Henry cooks dinner in the background. Grace enters and asks Albert if he ever gets tired of this show. He says fine and lets her change the channel. The next channel over is showing a Dodgers game, prompting Albert to immediately say “switch it back!” - causing Henry and Grace to both laugh.
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