PRESS
VOGUE — A MOTHER WITH MOXIE
For anyone suffering Kennedy fatigue, think again. Ethel, a documentary about Bobby Kennedy’s 84-year-old widow made by her eleventh and youngest child, Rory, (who was born after her father’s death) is a grand surprise. What may be lost in objective distance is amply compensated for by the laugh riot of Ethel’s escapades recounted by her children, and illustrated with a treasure trove of archival photographs and family movies. Ethel, who hasn’t given an interview for 35 years, talks bluntly to her daughter about her experiences, beliefs, and times of unspeakable grief, before gamely moving on. Megan O’Grady interviews mother and daughter in our story from Vogue’s July issue below. Ethel airs on October 18 at 9:00 p.m. on HBO. (read more)
CAPITOL FILE MAGAZINE — ETHEL KENNEDY BREAKS HER SILENCE
When she first appeared on the public stage, Ethel Skakel Kennedy had a Hollywood-starlet glamour and a sunnier, more exuberant spirit than her cooler and elegant sister-in-law, Jacqueline, the First Lady she once seemed destined to follow into the White House. She was irreverent, fearless, funny, and famously fecund: In a clip from the pre-PC ’60s, she is introduced by talk-show host Jack Paar on his widely watched TV show as “the lovely little girl here, mother of seven, who has given birth to her own precinct.” (He redeemed himself later, calling her “one of the world’s 10 most admired women.”) (read more)
LOS ANGELES TIMES- REVIEW: A MOVING PORTRAIT OF “ETHEL”
It may not be the most trenchant documentary, but “Ethel,” Rory Kennedy’s otherwise superb tribute to her mother and, in large part, her father, Robert F. Kennedy, is a moving, highly enjoyable, thoroughly absorbing portrait.
Booked for a quick theatrical run before its upcoming HBO premiere, the film chronicles the life of Ethel Skakel Kennedy from her seemingly charmed childhood as the puckish daughter of a successful Chicago businessman to her 1950 marriage to RFK and her role, following her husband’s 1968 assassination, as a devoted, competitive, at times free-spirited matriarch and torchbearer for RFK’s famed social consciousness.
It’s a great American story filled with pivotal 1950s and ’60s-era history and a raft of iconic political figures. (read more)
REVIEW: ‘ETHEL’ PULLS BACK THE CURTAIN ON A REMARKABLE LIFE
Ethel Kennedy doesn’t like to talk much about her life. She’d just rather get things done.
When she first sits down to be interviewed by her youngest daughter, Rory, for the upcoming HBO documentary “Ethel,” the feisty Ethel Kennedy bluntly asks, “Why should I answer all these questions?” (read more)
CULTURE MAP — FIVE SUNDANCE GEMS: EVEN TAYLOR SWIFT WANTS TO SEE THE ETHEL KENNEDY DOCUMENTARY
I love a good documentary. In prior years biographies on Ronald Reagan and Joan Rivers were big hits critically and financially at Sundance. And let’s face it, most of us find the Kennedy family highly intriguing. What a witness to history Ethel Kennedy has been. Ethel, made by her daughter, award-winning documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, is sure to attract some big stars as well as a huge contingent of the Kennedy family including Ethel Kennedy herself, now 83. (read more)
NEWS
Boston Herald — Filmmaker Rory Kennedy turns camera on mom in “Ethel”
10.17.12
Los Angeles Times — Critic’s Notebook: The day I met Ethel Kennedy
10.14.12
Washington Post — HBO’s “Ethel”: A Kennedy daughter, born late, reaches into the vault of memories
10.11.12
Crain’s Chicago Business — Ethel Kennedy sits in on Chicago screening of documentary about her life
10.03.12
CNN Podcast — Ethel and Rory Kennedy talk about the story behind Ethel
01.23.12
Los Angeles Times — Sundance 2012: Films to see in Park City
01.20.12
USA Today — Ethel Kennedy doc will headline Sundance 2012
01.18.12