Writer and Director: Chris Rock
The unforgiving treadmill of Hollywood, the gap between rich and poor in Los Angeles, the persecution of young Black men in the city, the sexual and commercial exploitation of young women and the brutal violence of urban settings, Chris Rock’s Misty Green has a lot going on and finds it difficult to keep all of its strands in check. Its most successful element is the tale of a self-destructive film start not getting the parts who does all she can to scupper her own career, but like Misty, the collateral of Rock’s movie starts to depreciate as the story drags on.
Misty Green once had a role in a famous TV show and is remembered fondly by the public. Still a young women, she struggles to get more work, spending her nights drinking and taking drugs, mixing with all the wrong people. With a reputation for bad behaviour and history with casting agents, Misty is not taken seriously at auditions until she meets a filmmaker who wants to give her a second chance. But when Misty’s brother returns causing chaos, her options dwindle once again.
To an extent Misty Green muses on the reality of fame and the compromises individuals must make to sustain it. And what could have been a morality tale about the cost of being famous and the need for women to sell more than their talent to stay in the game are rather squandered as the story unfolds. All the pieces are there and the potential, especially with British star Rosalind Eleazar in the title role, an actor who always plays multiple character layers simultaneously and makes Misty someone who is equally frustrating, idiotic but also worth rooting for. A women with talent that she is wasting but just needs a lucky break.
Rock’s story also has some things to say about the life of Hollywood and the reality of LA; almost every shot includes scenes of homelessness and deprivation in the background of the central characters, with the writer-director clearly interested in how close to the poverty line creatives must live. When Misty is offered a fantastic creative opportunity it comes with a low wage, while her lifestyle is precarious, living in the apartment of a former lover and nothing stable to call her own, leaving her vulnerable when it all goes wrong.
But Rock needed another eye on this project for which he is writer, director, producer and one of the stars to scale back the number of stories and issues Misty Green is trying to cover. There is too little time to properly investigate the suffering of Misty’s bi-polar brother played by Daniel Kaluya and the experience of being a Black man shortly after a violent crime has been committed. Likewise, Adam Driver’s sleazy role as a pimp for Dubai princes, rounding up desperate young actresses and essentially trafficking them for a weekend is thin, leaving his relationship with Misty where they trade sex for coke a little adrift.
Lots of good ideas but the film runs on far too long, too many additional chapters and ultimately, like its character, it loses its way.
Misty Green is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2026 from 7-18 October.
