Misty Green is a living, breathing chaos agent. A semi-working actor living in Los Angeles, she’s the kind of woman who will sleep with your husband and squat in his pied-à-terre, go out partying the night before an important audition, and blithely drive drunk. Whether she’s simply flaky and irresponsible or, in fact, a (mostly) functioning addict is difficult to determine. Yet the doe-eyed Rosalind Eleazar imbues that figure with a tragic and tender spirit in Misty Green, Chris Rock’s first directed feature in more than a decade.
The film, out today from A24, opens with a problem: The widow of Misty’s former lover, played by a biting Amy Landecker, is booting her from the apartment he gifted Misty, giving her a week to move out. During the two women’s confrontation, an Emmy for best supporting actress inscribed with Misty’s name is visible on a shelf. “Is that you?” the widow asks her incredulously.
Misty Green plays as a kind of indictment of the Hollywood machine. Despite her past success, Misty has to do self-tapes, demoralizing auditions, and the occasional singing gig just like every other struggling actor, all while trying to find a new home and look after her schizophrenic brother, Jay (an arresting Daniel Kaluuya). She’s also got a temper and has departed several projects on less than happy terms.
Talking to Eleazar—perhaps best known lately for her work on Apple TV’s Slow Horses—one gets the sense that punching a fellow cast member isn’t an issue she’s encountered on set; where Misty is brash and brassy, Eleazar is soft-spoken and thoughtful. Still, the Ghanaian British actress maintains a lot of empathy for her character, identifying her self-destructive patterns as a wounded cry for help.
