Chris Rock's 'Misty Green' Opens Friday. Reviews Split on the Script, Agree on Rosalind Eleazar

Chris Rock wrote, directed and co-stars in "Misty Green," a drama about a washed-up Emmy winner in Los Angeles. It opens in theaters Oct. 9. It is rated R for language, drug use and sexual references, and runs 103 minutes.

This is Rock's first movie as a director since 2014's "Top Five." The LA Times counts the gap at 12 years.

The setup

Rosalind Eleazar plays Misty Green, a former supporting-actress Emmy winner whose career has stalled. The LA Times review puts the win in 2008 and blames cocaine, bad choices and a bad attitude for the slide.

Misty has been living in the apartment of a dead lover. His widow, played by Amy Landecker, gives her a week to get out. The film follows those seven days.

The cast around her is deep. Adam Driver plays Zach, a sleazy filmmaker and occasional hookup. Daniel Kaluuya plays her brother Jay, who is described as bipolar in some reviews and as schizophrenic in others. Topher Grace plays her agent, and Anna Kendrick plays her best friend Naomi.

Rock plays Jordan, a director working on a "Dreamgirls" reboot who may be Misty's way back in. Per one review, Zach also dangles a $200,000 offer to fly to Dubai and entertain a royal fan. The NY Post review frames the Middle East trip as renting her body out, and the Rendy Reviews critic says Misty declines it.

Where the reviews agree

Eleazar is the draw. Awards Radar calls her turn a "breakthrough" and says she makes the title character "absolutely fascinating." Far Out Magazine says she is "a complete breakthrough." The NY Post singles her out for "a stunner of a performance." A WTOP review, as summarized by Ground News, carries the headline "astonishing Rosalind Eleazar" and gave the film three and a half stars.

It is her first starring film role. She is previously known for the TV series "Slow Horses" and "Missing You."

The LA Times goes furthest, comparing the film to Quentin Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" and Eleazar to Pam Grier. It also notes the script "isn't nearly as complex" as Tarantino's.

Where they split

The script is the fight. The NY Post's critic says the film doesn't "ultimately come together" but is more interesting than last year's "Jay Kelly," and calls it "dark and critical." The review's headline reads "Chris Rock viciously criticizes Hollywood."

Geek Vibes Nation says Rock has plenty to say about fame, aging, race, homelessness, addiction and the industry's habit of discarding Black actors. The reviewer says the film "doesn't always know which of those things it wants to say first." That review also argues the script never figures out what Misty actually misses: acting, or the money and lifestyle that came with it.

Far Out's Liam Gaughan gave it 2.5 stars. He writes that it "doesn't say anything new about acting or celebrity," and that its most powerful moments are "strung together with underdeveloped ideas."

The harshest dissent is on Rock's treatment of his lead. The Rendy Reviews critic argues the film "has nothing but contempt for its leading lady." That critic cites what he calls Rock's "misogynoir" in earlier work, including "I Think I Love My Wife" and the documentary "Good Hair." He says Rock "disregards his titular lead's humanity."

Other reviewers read the same material differently. The LA Times says the film sees Los Angeles through the lens of someone who respects it anyway. The NY Post calls the glamour-versus-grime tradeoff "pure pessimism."

The Hollywood angle

The film takes shots at the industry that employs its cast. The LA Times describes the opening montage as including barren studio lots, burning trees and the boarded-up Cinerama Dome.

Misty's own complaints are pointed. The LA Times quotes her grumbling: "I'm too Black to be with Leo, not Black enough to be with Damson, I'm not a nepo baby and I'm not a Brit." Eleazar is British. The joke is not subtle.

In another line quoted by the NY Post, when it's suggested that the "Dreamgirls" reboot includes no legit singers, Jordan snaps: "What are we gonna do next? A karate movie with no kicking?"

Awards Radar says the film's hook is making the fallen star a Black actress. It says that choice pays off despite "narrative shortcuts."

Far Out adds that Rock's own public profile has become "interesting" since 2014. It argues the film reads as musings and in-jokes from someone removed from Hollywood's glamour.

What comes next

The film played festivals before its release, including the New York Film Festival, per Awards Radar, and Toronto, per the LA Times and Geek Vibes Nation. It is an A24 release, per Far Out. No box office projections appear in the reviews.