Chris Rock could be one of the most underrated people in Hollywood. Not just as an actor, but also as a writer and director. Having been at the helm for projects that go back almost twenty-five years, he also has over four decades in entertainment going back to the classic Krush Groove (which predates even SNL). Having worked across a number of genres, all of them culminate in his latest offering in Misty Green.
Rosalind Eleazar (mostly known for Slow Horses) carries the load as the title character here, playing a woman whose attitude and shenanigans have taken a promising acting career and turned it into a trainwreck of ducking and weaving her way through life. Even with an Emmy to her name, the way she treats others outweighs her accomplishments by a country mile. When her benefactor passes and his widow kicks her out of the apartment he pays for, she has one week to get her career back on track before the bottom completely falls out. Given that this is an A24 film, I think we all know how this will go.
With a cast that includes heavy hitters like Adam Driver, Anna Kendrick, Topher Grace, Alexandra Shipp, Daniel Kaluuya (who is still crushing it), and even Rock himself, Eleazar absolutely shines as a woman whose ironic combination of ego and frailty does its best to keep her from getting out of her own way. However, this script falls victim to one of my least favorite trends of the last few years where there is NO ONE in this film that I felt I could root for. Sure, there are moments, but they are few and far between. Even the ancillary characters that I am supposed to at least acknowledge seem inconsequential in the overall narrative with a subplot that goes from background mentions to hit-you-in-the-face-with-a-hammer on a dime without the impact that it should.
Which leads me to this script overall. I hate the fact that I have to be critical of a man that I have held in such high regard for so long (Rock’s performance as Pookie in New Jack City is one of the most underrated and underappreciated of our time), but the story meanders with threads that don’t necessarily ever get defined or fleshed out. Even one of what should be the biggest turning points in this story is forgotten almost immediately after it is addressed as the characters simply move on from an event that would traumatize even the strongest of us for life.
I cannot even say that Misty even learns anything from the seven days that we spend with her. Perhaps her journey does have an ending where all is well, but there is an ambiguity in the middle of all of the chaos and politics that weave in and out of this story that I don’t even feel the need to ponder on it any further after I left the theater. To beef up Eleazar’s sizzle reel, this is a great example, but outside of that and a few fun cameos, that’s about it for Misty Green.