In his first movie since "Top Five," Rock confirms he's a major filmmaker. The title character of “Misty Green,” Chris Rock’s explosively entertaining, savagely authentic drama about life in the Hollywood of today, is a television actress who had a moment — in fact, she was close to the top of the heap. But that was then and this is now.
Misty, played by Rosalind Eleazar (“Slow Horses”) with doleful charisma and a casual fury, is in her late 30s. She’s a vivid and acclaimed actress and singer who was popular enough to have won the Emmy for best supporting actress for her cult thriller series “Red Eye.” She was on the cover of Cosmo. People still talk about her show in reverent tones.
Yet it’s funny how time passes. At an audition, Misty is seated next to a young actress who’s awed to meet her, because “Red Eye” was her mother’s favorite show. Misty still has her looks, her talent, and her drive (everything you need, right?).
And she’s still out there working it. But her career has been in a slump, and that kind of downhill mojo can take on a life of its own. Suddenly you look up and you’re a has-been.
It doesn’t help that Misty is an unapologetic party girl. She likes to drink, drug, and fuck whoever to the point that it’s getting more than a bit self-destructive. The night before that audition, she gets a text from Zack (Adam Driver), an oily tech power-player sleazebag who always has a harem of women around him, which he maintains by keeping them well-supplied with cocaine.
Misty hooks up with him for a night of clubbing, snorting, and screwing in the bathroom stall, and the next morning she’s a wreck. But her hellbent hedonism, and the recklessness that grows out of what’s really an orgiastic form of self-medicating, didn’t happen by accident. The big picture of her career is that the industry, because of its values (and because of her defiant nature, though that’s the very quality that made her a star), is slowly but surely choking off her options.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
