Eleazar Steals Rock's TIFF Drama 'Misty Green' — SkimNews
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- Chris Rock wrote and directed "Misty Green," which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, with publicists positioning the film as a drama rather than a comedy despite Rock's stand-up pedigree
- Rosalind Eleazar stars as the title character, a fallen starlet known for an Emmy-winning flight-attendant show called Red Eye whose career cratered due to drugs and on-set outbursts; the review calls her "the movie" and "a star-making turn"
- Supporting cast includes Topher Grace as Green's agent, Adam Driver as a cocaine-using ex-lover, Daniel Kaluuya as her bipolar brother, Amy Landecker as a widow pressing her to vacate a squatted apartment, and Anna Kendrick as a friend in a troubled relationship
- Rock also acts in the film as Jordan, a filmmaker who offers Green an audition for a Dreamgirls remake after hearing her rework Radiohead's "Creep" into a torch song at the Roosevelt
- The film skewers Hollywood's "double standards, racial biases, and blatant hypocrisies," with Green complaining she can't get work because she's "not a nepo baby or a Brit" — a line whose irony lands because Eleazar and Kaluuya are both British
- Eleazar, previously a recognizable character actress in Slow Horses, Harlots, and The Personal History of David Copperfield, draws what the review frames as Oscar-caliber buzz from the TIFF premiere
Why it matters: Eleazar has built a respected career in British imports like Slow Horses without breaking through to mainstream awards recognition, and a Rock-directed showcase at TIFF could be the vehicle that converts critical buzz into nominations. For Rock, the premiere marks a deliberate pivot to serious drama, with publicists explicitly positioning the film outside his stand-up persona to manage expectations.
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