Satires of Hollywood are much more frequent in cinema than one might think. They’re a specific sub-genre which I tend to scrutinize perhaps more than is necessary, because so many have been made and so few have found totally new things to say. However, with Misty Green, writer-director Chris Rock found a way to at least put a decently fresh spin on west-coast critique, anchoring it in a solidly involving drama starring Rosalind Eleazar in the title role — and in a breakout performance.
The dramatic side of the film often trends in the direction of character study, and that’s where Eleazar flourishes. Misty is a working actress in Los Angeles, somewhat famous for an Emmy-winning supporting role on a long-since-cancelled series. In the opening minutes, she wakes up where she had been living in an odd arrangement for a while: the apartment of a man she once knew who had been cheating on his wife with her. The wife, Celine (Amy Landecker), informs her that her husband has long since passed and she is in the process of cleaning out all the skeletons in his closet. The scene is contentious until Celine realizes who Misty is, lavishing the actress in praise. She gives Misty one week to clear out of the place, a week in which down-on-her-luck Misty happens to have two potentially life-changing auditions.
You probably gathered from that opening scene that not all of Misty’s problems are outside of her control. Rock and Eleazar do an excellent job of balancing the character such that you feel immense sympathy for her (especially during one audition where she is simply stepped all over) at the same time as recognizing her self-destructive behaviors. Crucially, you also get an idea as to why she indulges some of these behaviors. Jay (Daniel Kaluuya), her bipolar brother, is a huge drain on her energy and emotional bandwidth. That’s obviously out of her control, but the ways in which she chooses to indulge her sadness — with drugs and overboard partying — are clearly defined as choices.
All the while, there are undercurrents and overcurrents of themes about casual racism and misogynoir in the Hollywood casting system and in the broader culture. Rock never really puts this forward as a way of letting Misty off the hook for anything, but at the same time, he shows her to be honest in her struggle and illuminates a plethora of double standards. There are times when he is far too on-the-nose with his commentary, just as there are times when his plotting is far too predictable, especially for an otherwise mature, exploratory character study like this. Still, Eleazar is genuinely putting in a star-making turn, and Kaluuya reminds us yet again of his balance of range, restraint, and authenticity.
For both actors, the characters’ pain is written all over their faces, but they both have subtle ways of hiding it to the world. This is less true for Kaluuya’s Jay, as he does spiral far more than Misty due to his pronounced mental health issues. But again, Eleazar shines when Misty has to sort through complex dynamics and tough memories as she attempts to shield these from the harsh light of day. Despite the movie’s flaws, Eleazar makes it worth seeing by her subtle force of will alone. | George Napper
