Misty Green Review: A Messy, Self-Destructive Look at Hollywood

Written and directed by Chris Rock, Misty Green takes place in Los Angeles and follows Misty Green, played by Rosalind Eleazar, a down-on-her-luck actress who is running out of time. She has seven days to get her belongings out of her late ex-boyfriend’s house, she’s dealing with an eviction, her bipolar brother needs bail money, and she’s trying to land a role that could potentially get her career back on track. Oh, and somehow she keeps finding time to make some absolutely terrible decisions along the way.

The movie starts with Misty getting kicked out by her late side piece’s wife. Misty tries to play it off like she and the deceased were just friends, but the wife already knows exactly what was going on. She even saw Misty at the funeral. After recognizing her, the widow goes through some lines with her and gives Misty one week to get her stuff out of the house. So right from the beginning, we know Misty has a clock ticking.

Misty spends a lot of the movie with her friend, played by Anna Kendrick, when we first meet her she is trying to help Misty  figure out what the hell she is going to do next. She keeps throwing out ideas, but Misty rejects almost every one of them. She doesn't really have anybody she can fall back on either. She isn't close with her exes, doesn't want to depend on anybody, and definitely doesn't want to feel locked down to one person.

And that's really the problem with Misty. She wants another shot at Hollywood, but she also keeps getting in her own way.

Misty is still a damn good actress. Everybody knows it. The problem is that nobody really respects her anymore. She has burned bridges, made bad decisions and left a whole lot of people in the industry with a grudge against her. So now she's trying to convince everyone, including herself, that she deserves another chance.

Chris Rock plays Jordan, an acclaimed director and former agent who has a history with Misty. He's directing another Dreamgirls reboot, and Misty has a shot at being part of it. The problem is that Jordan's last movie bombed horribly, so he's got his own pressure to deal with. Misty and Jordan have worked together before, but their relationship is complicated because of something that happened when Misty was high. She ended up hurting a wardrobe woman, and that's the kind of thing people don't just forget.

And this movie has a ridiculous cast. Along with Rosalind Eleazar, Chris Rock and Anna Kendrick, you've got Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Topher Grace, Traci Thomas, Alexandria Shipp and Anthony Anderson. There are also a bunch of random cameos and name drops throughout the movie that had me stopping for a second like, “Wait, was that who I think it was?”

One of the biggest things that stood out to me is just how self-destructive Misty is.

She'll have an opportunity right in front of her and somehow find a way to make the worst possible decision. She'll be preparing for an audition, then decide to skip running her lines so she can go party, do drugs and have bathroom sex. At one point, she's auditioning for The Devil Wears Prada and her nose starts bleeding because, well, the drug use has caught up with her.

She even tries to sleep with her agent Andy, played by Topher Grace. It's just bad decision after bad decision. And I get what the movie is going for. Misty isn't simply trying to get another acting job. She's trying to find her second act. She's trying to become the person she used to be while also dealing with all the damage she caused along the way.

The movie also uses Misty's behavior to make a bigger point about Hollywood. We get a look at auditions, the way actors are treated, the pressure to constantly prove yourself and how quickly people can turn on you when you become difficult to work with. The movie acknowledges that Hollywood can be sexist and racist, but at the same time, Misty has genuinely screwed up. That's what makes her character interesting. It's not as simple as saying everyone is against her because of who she is.

She has given people plenty of reasons not to trust her. And then there's the idea that Misty is “acting” even when she's not on a set. Chris Rock's character basically points out that acting isn't just her profession. It's the way she moves through life. She's constantly putting on a front and pretending everything is okay when it clearly isn't.

That actually might be my favorite part of the character. Even when Misty finally lands the role that could completely change her life and put her back on top, I'm sitting there wondering, “Okay, how is she going to screw this up?” Because at this point, that's the biggest threat to Misty's future.

Misty isn't the only character dealing with serious issues, either. Daniel Kaluuya gives what I thought was one of the best performances in the movie as Misty's brother, Jordan Jay Green. He's dealing with bipolar disorder and has this strange sense of humor where he likes playing little pranks, including using toy spiders.

Unfortunately, he picks the absolute wrong time to pull one of those pranks, and it lands him in some serious trouble.

Kaluuya really stood out to me here. There's a lot going on with Jay, and the performance doesn't feel like it's just there to make him “the mentally ill brother.” There's an actual person underneath all of it, and Kaluuya brings a lot to the character.

The movie also deals with some heavier subjects, including mental health and police profiling. There's an ongoing storyline involving the murder of a college student, and we repeatedly see mostly Black men being stopped and searched. It's another layer to everything happening around Misty and her family.

There are also a bunch of random pop-culture references and name drops, including Chicago Fire and The White Lotus, which definitely caught my attention. But the biggest thing I took away from Misty Green is that this is a movie about somebody desperately trying to regain something she once had while constantly sabotaging herself.

And that's where I have a little bit of a problem with the movie. I understand why Misty is written this way. I understand the message. I understand that there are people in Hollywood who have talent but destroy their own opportunities through addiction, bad decisions, ego and just refusing to get their shit together.

But, Misty is messy! There were multiple times where I was watching this movie thinking, “Girl, WHY would you do that?”

At the same time, that's probably exactly what the movie wants you to feel. Misty Green has great acting performances, a cohesive story and some hard-hitting messages about Hollywood, mental health, addiction and the way people can become their own worst enemy.

My biggest question is simply: why make the main character this self-destructive? I get it. That's the point. But watching her make one terrible decision after another can be rough. Still, I love what A24 does with movies like this. They aren't always trying to give you a character you're supposed to like. Sometimes they give you somebody you're supposed to understand, even when you don't agree with anything they're doing.

And that's Misty Green. She's talented. She's complicated. She's damaged. She's trying to make a comeback.

And she's probably her own biggest obstacle. I didn't love every decision this movie made, but I definitely found myself thinking about it after it was over. And honestly, that's usually a good sign.