THE STORY – Years after her Hollywood breakthrough, a talented actress whose career has stalled fights for her second act.
THE CAST – Rosalind Eleazar, Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick, Topher Grace & Chris Rock
THE TEAM– Chris Rock (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 103 Minutes
It appears comedian, actor, and director Chris Rock has finally reached his limit. The multi-hyphenate’s 12 year absence from the director’s chair has finally led to an artistic shift. His latest film “Misty Green” feels like a display of all the pent-up frustration Rock has accumulated over the past decade, shaped by his divorce, aging, his career, and the infamous Oscar slap that is now forever associated with anything he does from here on out. Yet Rock, a New York-born artist living in California, has the years under his belt to know the right moment to strike. He also knows that to be among the great directors he admires, he inevitably has to make a film about Hollywood. “Misty Green” is that film, setting itself apart from “Top Five” as a serious satire about one woman’s fight to reclaim her place amid her self-destructive ways. It’s a pivot that Rock is not able to swing both in its unfocused narrative and in the way everyone isn’t afforded the few laughs that work; that is, unless you’re Rock.
Rosalind Eleazar, who plays the titular character, was once a shining star in Hollywood. The Emmy winner, fresh off a hit series, is now at her lowest, living in the beachfront apartment of her now-deceased sugar daddy. That is, until his widow comes knocking on Misty’s door, giving her a week to move out before she’s forcibly evicted. Every opportunity has dried up for Misty in the business, as the aging star has formed some sort of feud with agents, casting directors, or other actors. Her only tie to this world is the golden statue on her shelf, reminding her of everything she’s lost. Misty doesn’t do herself any favors either; whenever an audition could help, her undisciplined nature derails her, often in the form of snorting whatever she can with her former co-star and high-end pimp Zach, played by Adam Driver.
While Rock structures the film over the seven days until Misty is evicted, he takes his time probing not only what makes her tick but also the ecosystem of personalities in Los Angeles that surrounds her. For someone as stubborn, problematic, and selfish as Misty, over the course of almost two hours, the film can’t even convey what makes her such an enticing subject to build a story around. Eleazar colors in the lines with a magnetic performance, capturing a rawness she’s never displayed before. She delivers career-best work, fully transforming into a fiery woman who is her own worst villain. Rock’s writing presents her as the only character with any actual dimensions compared to everyone else, whose presence is only there to add a sense of flavoring to the Los Angeles Rock has come to have a love-hate relationship with.
One of the only people who slightly rises above is Anna Kendrick, who garners some of the most laughs in the film as Misty’s snow bunny bestie, whose willingness to put up with her partner for financial security doesn’t stop her from eye-banging any man with a darker complexion. Even with Kendrick garnering laughs, her placement in the film is a total time-killer. The same can be said about Driver, who represents the absurdity of the town with his cabal of high-end hookers and trips to Dubai, where women listen to Busta Rhymes and fight for Birkin bags. It sounds ridiculous, but the situational comedy in these set pieces is far more integral to the narrative than everything involving Daniel Kalyuua’s Jay, Misty’s bipolar brother, who comes in like a tornado and causes chaos. Kalyuua – who came out of what’s been described as semi-retirement – is as ferocious as Eleazar, but Rock relegates this character to a whacked-out mental patient who escalates things for the sake of conjuring some sort of momentum for the plot.
Rock unmistakably wants to create the Los Angeles equivalent of a Woody Allen picture, a filmmaker who has heavily influenced this project, which is ironic considering how sluggishly-paced “Misty Green” is. The opening, which features a photo montage of Los Angeles in all its beauty and failure, shows that Rock’s direction had improved since his last feature. The messaging wraps around some of the most worrisome storytelling Rock has delivered so far. His character in the film, Jordan Green, a down-on-his-luck director tasked with assembling a “Dreamgirls” remake, has the most humorous moments, mainly a monologue opposite Eleazar about why he asks for things the way he does. “Misty Green” is never as insightful, scathing, or sharp as it wants to be. Rock’s commentary on homelessness, Blackness in Hollywood, and how the business turns talent into jaded personalities is all surface-level. Audiences should turn out for Eleazar’s powerhouse performance. Some will vary on whether seeing the film spin in circles for almost two hours is worth it, considering it feels as if the woman we see at its end isn’t that far off from the drug-addicted hustler we see sleeping in another woman’s bed.
