On a downslide in Hollywood

  Rosalind Eleazar, an actress familiar to Slow Horses fans, provides the best reason to see Misty Green, Chris Rock’s fourth film as a director. 

 Eleazar plays the title character, an actress and singer whose career has declined. Back in the day, Misty won an Emmy for her work in a hit series, but a younger generation knows her as someone their parents used to love. On top of that, Misty’s drug use and alienating personality have put a damper on a career that should be deep into its sweet spot.

  Instead, Misty does signing gigs and attends humiliating auditions. A winning smile can transform her face in an instant, but she can also be insulting and unpleasant. On the night before an audition, she’s likely to party hard enough to throw her attempts to land a role, even one that's beneath her talents, way off balance.

  If Hollywood weren't enough to deal with, Misty’s being tossed out of the luxe apartment a recently deceased lover said she could occupy. Her bipolar brother, an amazing Daniel Kaluuya, has just been released from jail. Needy and explosively childish, Kaluuya's Jay seems likely to derail in a burst of fury.

   Rock appears in the film as Jordan Green (no relation to Misty), a director who was embarrassed by Misty on a previous filming. She punched someone on the crew.

  Rock has scenes in which he’s sharply funny. A rant on why he hates civil rights movies sounds as if it could have been lifted from one of his stand-up sets. Overall, though, I wondered whether the part should have gone to someone else.

     Important to the story’s development, Jordan is set to direct a reboot of Dreamgirls. The lead role of Deena would be perfect for Misty. Will she even get a shot at it? 

    Misty deals with racial obstacles in Hollywood and goes toe-to-toe with those who dismiss her as abrasive. But she’s a complicated character, so much so that it’s difficult to tell where Hollywood’s insulting treatment begins and Misty’s self-destructive tendencies leave off. 

    The supporting cast includes Adam Driver, as a marginal Hollywood director whose life has become more about drugs and high-dollar pimping than moviemaking. Anna Kendrik plays Misty’s friend, another actress, but one who has her eye on a suitor who can provide financial security. 

  Amy Landecker bristles in a small role as the venomous widow who gives Misty a week to vacate her late husband’s apartment.

   Overall, Misty may not be the movie that delivers the definitive work on Hollywood's transactional ways. But it makes room for pungent moments about after-hours Hollywood, and it captures the way the odor of failure can drift into self-abasement.

     Misty Green threatens to shatter into disparate pieces, even as it operates in loose fashion, a ramble through Hollywood with a chip on its shoulder that gives Eleazar room to create a memorable character at a moment of peak anguish.