Eleazar Carries Chris Rock's TIFF Premiere 'Misty Green' — SkimNews
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- Chris Rock directed 'Misty Green,' his first feature since 2014's 'Top Five,' with the film premiering in Toronto Film Festival's Gala Presentations section and distributed by A24
- Rosalind Eleazar stars as the title character, a Black former Supporting Actress Emmy winner battling addiction, estrangement from her jailed brother, and her own refusal to audition for work beneath her
- The reviewer calls Eleazar's turn 'mesmerizing' and 'one of the best performances by an actress this year,' crediting her with lifting an otherwise uneven film
- Daniel Kaluuya is singled out as 'heartbreaking' as Misty's brother Jay, a young man in and out of jail whose mess she can't stop trying to fix
- Supporting cast includes Anna Kendrick as Misty's best friend, Adam Driver as a sleazy would-be filmmaker, Topher Grace as her frustrated agent, and Rock himself as a working director
- The reviewer criticizes Rock's own performance for lapsing into stand-up-style dialogue including use of the N word, undermining the otherwise serious register
- The film runs 1 hour and 44 minutes, is rated R, and was produced by Peter Rice, Rock, Victoria Thomas, and David Worthen Brooks
Why it matters: Eleazar's turn is positioned as an awards-caliber breakthrough for a British actress best known for 'Slow Horses,' and the film deliberately revives a classic Hollywood-has-been genre — Sunset Boulevard, The Star, Inside Daisy Clover — but recasts it with a Black lead, a demographic the reviewer notes is rarely centered in this kind of story.
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