Review of Bobby: Director Emilio Estevez and Ensemble Cast Salutes the Life of Robert Kennedy

Early in Bobby, the new film by Emilio Estevez, the characters quote dialogue from the classic 1932 movie Grand Hotel signaling that this is going to be as much a tribute to the long life of Los Angeles’ venerable Ambassador Hotel as it is to the short life of Robert F. Kennedy.

Writer-director-actor Estevez was granted special permission to film his homage on site as the Ambassador was slated for demolition. He was able to reenact RFK’s assassination in the notorious kitchen pantry where the unthinkable actually happened. One of the many messages Estevez sends in this nuanced movie is for filmmakers to work domestically (and preferably in California), rather than recreate Los Angeles in Toronto or simulate New York in Prague. The Ambassador is one historic location that can’t be outsourced.

Seemingly everyone in Estevez’ Blackberry plays a role in this ensemble cast. Neither bio pic nor documentary, Bobby is a freeway cloverleaf of divergent lives that intersect for one June night in 1968 to share a common fateful experience. All of the characters fret and obsess over their individual chores of growing older with wisdom or dignity. Estevez wants us to remember that aging is one of life’s travails that Robert Kennedy was never allowed to confront.