TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. It's been 12 years since Chris Rock directed his last movie, the romantic comedy "Top Five." Now he has a new one, "Misty Green," which stars Rosalind Eleazar as a once successful Hollywood actress whose career has taken a downward turn. Our critic-at-large, John Powers, says that the film, which also stars Adam Driver and Rock himself, is bursting with energy, but takes you to bleaker places than you might anticipate.
JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: There's one thing we know about folks who do stand-up, they nearly always dream of sitting down in a director's chair. One who's had some success doing just that is Chris Rock, whose biting jokes and charmingly demonic grin hide a taste for serious movies. He pushes in that direction with his new film, "Misty Green," a story more filled with pain and nastiness than laughter. Set in Hollywood, modern shorthand for sunlit soullessness, this portrait of a brilliant, self-sabotaging actress is at once high-powered and problematic.
Rosalind Eleazar, who you'll know from "Slow Horses," gives a fireball turn as Misty, a gifted actress who won an Emmy a few years back on a show called "The Red Eye." Now she faces disaster. About to be evicted from her lux seaside apartment, Misty is so desperate for a job that she's preparing to audition for the kind of demeaning role Percival Everett set up in "Erasure." Because she's biracial and no longer young, she's a hard sell in a Hollywood that likes its actresses young and white. That said, Misty has also blown several good chances by being spiky, troublesome, druggy.
The world around her doesn't help. She's got a bipolar brother, that's Daniel Kaluuya, who keeps fleeing his clinic. She's got an agent so slippery, he's played by Topher Grace. Her best friend, that's Anna Kendrick, is a chirpy cynic who's marrying a clueless guy for his money. And then there's Adam Driver's character, a Hollywood scuzzball with whom Misty has joyless sex in exchange for joyless drugs, even on the night before the audition that might save her.
The one angel on her shoulder is a film director, Jordan, played by Rock himself. Witty and world-wise, he has profound respect for Misty's massive talent, even though he once fired her from a big movie after she had a coked-up fight on set. As it happens, Jordan's about to direct a remake of "Dreamgirls." And though it's already been cast, Misty dreams of landing the role of Deena, the one played by Beyoncé. Could this be her way back into the big time? Here, during her audition for a lesser role in "Dreamgirls," the actress cast as Deena bursts into the room, then realizes who she's interrupting.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MISTY GREEN")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Misty Green. Oh, wow. Rhonda, why are you reading Misty Green? Just give her the part, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Yeah, Rhonda, just give her the part.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) My dad loves "The Red Eye." He wore the uniform last week on the show.
ROSALIND ELEAZAR: (As Misty Green) Oh, tell him thanks (laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Yeah (laughter). Oh, were you guys still going?
ELEAZAR: (As Misty Green) Yeah, we were.
TRACIE THOMS: (As Rhonda) No. No, no, no. We're about finished.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) No. Yeah, we're all wrapped up.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) OK (laughter).
ELEAZAR: (As Misty Green) Actually, I'd like to do it again.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) No, we're good, we're good.
THOMS: (As Rhonda) We're just pretty much done, so it's fine.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) OK (laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Misty, thank you so much.
ELEAZAR: (As Misty Green) No, actually, I'd like to do it again.
THOMS: (As Rhonda) Did you get the new draft?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) It's so hard to, like...
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Thanks for coming, Misty. It was good to see you.
ELEAZAR: (As Misty Green) No, I would like to do it again. I didn't get to finish it.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Thanks so, so much, Misty, for coming. It was really great to see you.
ELEAZAR: (As Misty Green) Hello. I would like to finish my audition if it isn't too much trouble. All right?
POWERS: Now, in purely cinematic terms, "Misty Green" marks a step forward for Rock. His filmmaking bristles with vigor from the opening scene, when Misty gets yelled at by the widow of her recently deceased sugar daddy, to its final ironic payoff. Rock crams his movie full of lively scenes - auditions, car crashes, musical numbers, police arrests, private jets, fist fights and occasional funny bits, like a laugh-out-loud riff on why civil rights movies stink.
Along the way, Rock nods to larger social themes - homelessness in LA, the racial profiling of Black men, Hollywood's racism and sexism - but they remain mere nods. What he shows about these ills is so familiar and undeniably true that it's less cutting-edge analysis than old hat. Even more disappointing is the film's vision of women. Except for a casting director fed up with Misty's misbehavior - she's shrewdly played by Tracie Thoms - the women characters are all dopey or bitter, venal or naive. They're a mother lode of terrible choices. Even Misty's doctor seems like a fool.
Misty herself is not easy to like, but at least this feels groundbreaking. For while we've had movies about difficult actors, be it Bette Davis in "All About Eve" or Gena Rowlands in "Opening Night," we've not seen a woman of color a claim center stage playing such a thorny, artistic role. And it's kind of thrilling. Whether she's being funny or resentful, wounded or imperious, nailing an audition or singing in a nightclub - very well, by the way - Misty is a blazing ball of contradictions that only a galvanizing performance can make us believe in or sympathize with.
Eleazar provides just that, filling in the underdeveloped aspects of Rock's conception of Misty with living, breathing, passionate life. She holds the movie aloft, even as we gradually realize that this is just another Hollywood morality tale, and that while Misty may be the protagonist, there's someone the movie loves more. Indeed, the film's key line, true love starts at forgiveness, is delivered - you guessed it - by Rock's character. There's a reason why comedians dream of sitting in the director's chair.
MOSLEY: John Powers reviewed "Misty Green."
(SOUNDBITE OF WES MONTGOMERY'S "MISTY")
MOSLEY: Next time on FRESH AIR, Yiyun Li won a Pulitzer Prize for her memoir about the suicides of her two teenage sons. In her new novel, she escapes the present and writes about two piano prodigies in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. She says she put everything she knows about life into it. She'll talk about the novel and surviving her sons' deaths. I hope you can join us.
To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR's executive producer is Sam Briger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF WES MONTGOMERY'S "MISTY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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