Misty Green, 2026.
Directed by Chris Rock.
Starring Rosalind Eleazar, Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick, Chris Rock, Topher Grace, Alexandra Shipp, Antony Anderson, Tracie Thoms, Rich Sommer, Amy Landecker, Necar Zadegan and Ice-T.
SYNOPSIS
Years after her Hollywood breakthrough, a talented actress whose career has stalled fights for her second act.
Comedian Chris Rock has returned to the director’s chair with his latest film Misty Green, a scathing indictment of the Hollywood system that is satirical, dramatic and relevant to the changes audiences keep seeing in the industry. Led by a strong performance from Rosalind Eleazar, Misty Green is one of Rock’s best works.
The story follows Misty Green, a once huge actress from a beloved TV show who is struggling to find work amid her various personal troubles such as eviction, drug addiction and her schizophrenic brother. Eleazar delivers a stunning performance as Misty, capturing all of her flaws, appeal and talent throughout the course of the film. She imbues much complexity to Misty as she does whatever she can to revitalize her career after a few scandals, reputation for difficulty and ‘creative differences’ among other reasons. Eleazar makes you root for Misty despite the odds and in spite of her flaws and bad choices, hoping she’ll come out stronger on the other side. She plays the role with subtlety, at times making Misty’s choices obvious to the audience before she makes them because of her patterns and other times doing the unexpected to break free from her self-destructive tendencies.
Much of her struggle revolves around the contradictions within the Hollywood industry. Whether it be racial views, audition processes, sexual harassment or baffling casting choices, Rock’s script does a nice job satirizing the hoops and injustices Misty and others have to go through even if she was not dealing with drugs or eviction. He even offers a broader view of society (but LA culture specifically) as Misty’s brother Jordan struggles with mental illness and how he is viewed by those around him. There is a lot of commentary and thematic elements Rock juggles, but he balances them all well by weaving them into the story and the character’s arcs with grace.
Backing Eleazar up is a fairly large ensemble of Misty’s friends and colleagues, including Daniel Kaluuya as her brother, Anna Kendrick as her best friend, Adam Driver as her drug-dealing situationship and Rock as one of her old directors. Of the supporting cast, Kaluuya and Rock make the strongest impressions with Kaluuya giving an emotional performance as Jordan suffers through both his schizophrenia and racial preconceptions whether real or imagined due to his illness. He and Eleazar share nice chemistry together, their relationship well defined and easily believable that they are siblings who are still coming to terms with an uneasy childhood.
Rock also shows he’s more than capable serving triple duty as actor, writer and director with his role being an integral one not only to Misty’s journey but the social commentary as he offers a different insight into Hollywood and culture than anything Misty might have considered herself. Much of it seems semi-autobiographical as well considering Rock’s last time as a director, much like his character, was over 10 years ago, not to mention how the much addressed Oscars controversy shifted how he was perceived by the public.
Despite Rock’s primary background in comedy, Misty Green is a drama with touches of funny moments and dialogue, but the subject matter, if you didn’t realize it already, can be heavy and gets rather dark towards the end. This again serves the film’s themes of Hollywood’s dark underbelly and gives credence to Rock’s own experiences in the system. The weight of the characters actions and their consequences are felt throughout the film and given the proper amount of depth and examination for the topics Rock explores. Eleazar’s layered and complex portrayal of Misty is fantastic and will potentially put her on the shortlist come awards time.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Ricky Church
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