LA Weekly review
LA WEEKLY
ELLIE PARKER
This fun, scattershot Hollywood spoof by writer-director Scott Coffey evolved from a 20-minute Sundance short back in 2001, before its star and co-producer, Naomi Watts, had made her name in Mulholland Drive. Playing slyly off the intensity that has set her up as the go-to girl for falling-apart roles, Watts shows off an engagingly self-mocking side as a young actress with more guts than talent, striving to make the leap from soaps and commercials into serious film. Watching Ellie drag herself from one lousy audition to another (“I love the script,” she parrots with diminishing conviction), from primal therapy to primal acting class, from her best friend’s pseudo-avant-garde art gallery and home to her guitar-strumming deadbeat boyfriend, you want to load up the U-Haul and send her home to Mom for a hot meal. Though it relies perilously on movie-within-a-movie bits of business we’ve all seen many times before, Ellie Parker bounces along on Coffey’s deadpan capture of the no-exit, Hollywood Hills periphery of the movie industry. If you still want to make it in the business after seeing this, you’re a very sick puppy. (Ella Taylor)
ELLIE PARKER
This fun, scattershot Hollywood spoof by writer-director Scott Coffey evolved from a 20-minute Sundance short back in 2001, before its star and co-producer, Naomi Watts, had made her name in Mulholland Drive. Playing slyly off the intensity that has set her up as the go-to girl for falling-apart roles, Watts shows off an engagingly self-mocking side as a young actress with more guts than talent, striving to make the leap from soaps and commercials into serious film. Watching Ellie drag herself from one lousy audition to another (“I love the script,” she parrots with diminishing conviction), from primal therapy to primal acting class, from her best friend’s pseudo-avant-garde art gallery and home to her guitar-strumming deadbeat boyfriend, you want to load up the U-Haul and send her home to Mom for a hot meal. Though it relies perilously on movie-within-a-movie bits of business we’ve all seen many times before, Ellie Parker bounces along on Coffey’s deadpan capture of the no-exit, Hollywood Hills periphery of the movie industry. If you still want to make it in the business after seeing this, you’re a very sick puppy. (Ella Taylor)
posted by EP at 11:00 AM
1 Comments:
"Watching Ellie" was the name of a short-lived TV show from a few seasons back. Remember?
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