New York Times review
NEW YORK TIMES
ELLIE PARKER
Written and directed by SCOTT COFFEY
Acting Classes, Therapy and Awful Boyfriends
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
In Scott Coffey's corrosive, deadpan comedy "Ellie
Parker," the camera pauses just long enough
to take in a marquee announcing a double bill of "Play It as
It Lays" and "The Day of the Locust." That's
right; once again, Los Angeles takes it on the chin.
In the film, Naomi Watts
delivers a fearless, largely unsympathetic portrayal of the
title character as a desperate, unstrung version of herself
(an Australian actress with a knack for dialects). The
unstable Ellie Parker is not unlike Maria Wyeth, the anomic
protagonist of Joan Didion's
prescient novel "Play It as It Lays," and it's probably no
coincidence that in the movie Ms. Watts resembles the young
Tuesday
Weld, who portrayed Maria in the 1972 screen
adaptation of the novel. Many of the symptoms of malaise
that afflicted Maria beset Ellie, who vents in cliche-ridden
psychobabble sometimes filtered through booze and Vicodin.
Ellie's exasperating streak of self-dramatization could
wear anyone down. "I don't know who I am," she whines to her
best friend, Sam (Rebecca Rigg), a more level-headed fellow
actress, who blithely retorts, "Nobody knows who they are."
Ellie complains to her female therapist, "I feel like I'm
waiting for my life to start," then hugs a pillow and
regresses into childhood. For Ellie, therapy is just an
extension of her acting classes. She also suspects her
therapist of having a crush on her. The very word
"therapist," she declares heatedly, suggests violation,
because if you take the word apart, it becomes "the rapist."
Ellie has infallibly awful taste in men. After she comes
home to discover her live-in boyfriend Justin (Mark
Pellegrino), a rock guitarist, cavorting in bed with a
casting director, she moves in with Sam and soon hooks up
with Chris (Mr. Coffey), an apologetic sad sack she meets
when they have a minor car collision. She later meets him
again by chance at the store where he works; he pretends to
be his own nonexistent twin brother before sheepishly
admitting he was lying. When they finally have sex, Chris
announces immediately afterward that he has just realized
he's gay; fantasies of Johnny Depp
carried him through the act.
But the movie's funniest and most significant scenes
dwell on the rigors of the acting profession. When Ellie and
Sam attend a class where they are encouraged to dredge up
painful personal experiences, Sam re-enacts a childhood
memory of burning down the house but afterward confesses she
invented the story. Ellie, aghast at her friend's deception,
protests. Sam counters: "How many times are you going to cry
about your drunken mother? It's boring!"
Below the comedy, "Ellie Parker" suggests the real
psychic toll of all those acting classes and sense-memory
exercises. Anguished sensitivity summoned on command to
impress dispassionate judges in the Hollywood meat market
can leave you agitated and confused about what you really
feel. As Ellie drives from one audition to another, using
her car as a dressing room and rehearsal studio while
undertaking a metamorphosis from Southern belle into
foul-mouthed junkie prostitute, you feel the strain.
What's left of yourself once you have drained away your
emotions in pursuit of an authenticity that, if you're
lucky, will probably be squandered on a bit part in a
second-rate television series?
The visually crude, digital-video "Ellie Parker"
originated as a 16-minute short that was first shown at the
2001 Sundance Film Festival, before Ms. Watts became a star.
It was shot sporadically over four years in the breaks
between her higher-profile projects. For Ms. Watts, it is a
small, brave acting tour de force.
Ellie Parker
Opens today in Manhattan.
Written and directed by Scott Coffey; directors of
photography, Mr. Coffey and Blair Mastbaum; edited by Matt
Chesse and Catherine Hollander; music by Neil Jackson, songs
performed by Built Like Alaska; produced by Mr. Coffey,
Naomi Watts,
Mr. Chesse and Mr. Mastbaum; released by Strand Releasing.
Running time: 95 minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Naomi Watts (Ellie Parker), Rebecca Rigg (Sam),
Scott Coffey (Chris), Mark Pellegrino (Justin), Chevy Chase
(Dennis) and Blair Mastbaum (Smash).
ELLIE PARKER
Written and directed by SCOTT COFFEY
Acting Classes, Therapy and Awful Boyfriends
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
In Scott Coffey's corrosive, deadpan comedy "Ellie
Parker," the camera pauses just long enough
to take in a marquee announcing a double bill of "Play It as
It Lays" and "The Day of the Locust." That's
right; once again, Los Angeles takes it on the chin.
In the film, Naomi Watts
delivers a fearless, largely unsympathetic portrayal of the
title character as a desperate, unstrung version of herself
(an Australian actress with a knack for dialects). The
unstable Ellie Parker is not unlike Maria Wyeth, the anomic
protagonist of Joan Didion's
prescient novel "Play It as It Lays," and it's probably no
coincidence that in the movie Ms. Watts resembles the young
Tuesday
Weld, who portrayed Maria in the 1972 screen
adaptation of the novel. Many of the symptoms of malaise
that afflicted Maria beset Ellie, who vents in cliche-ridden
psychobabble sometimes filtered through booze and Vicodin.
Ellie's exasperating streak of self-dramatization could
wear anyone down. "I don't know who I am," she whines to her
best friend, Sam (Rebecca Rigg), a more level-headed fellow
actress, who blithely retorts, "Nobody knows who they are."
Ellie complains to her female therapist, "I feel like I'm
waiting for my life to start," then hugs a pillow and
regresses into childhood. For Ellie, therapy is just an
extension of her acting classes. She also suspects her
therapist of having a crush on her. The very word
"therapist," she declares heatedly, suggests violation,
because if you take the word apart, it becomes "the rapist."
Ellie has infallibly awful taste in men. After she comes
home to discover her live-in boyfriend Justin (Mark
Pellegrino), a rock guitarist, cavorting in bed with a
casting director, she moves in with Sam and soon hooks up
with Chris (Mr. Coffey), an apologetic sad sack she meets
when they have a minor car collision. She later meets him
again by chance at the store where he works; he pretends to
be his own nonexistent twin brother before sheepishly
admitting he was lying. When they finally have sex, Chris
announces immediately afterward that he has just realized
he's gay; fantasies of Johnny Depp
carried him through the act.
But the movie's funniest and most significant scenes
dwell on the rigors of the acting profession. When Ellie and
Sam attend a class where they are encouraged to dredge up
painful personal experiences, Sam re-enacts a childhood
memory of burning down the house but afterward confesses she
invented the story. Ellie, aghast at her friend's deception,
protests. Sam counters: "How many times are you going to cry
about your drunken mother? It's boring!"
Below the comedy, "Ellie Parker" suggests the real
psychic toll of all those acting classes and sense-memory
exercises. Anguished sensitivity summoned on command to
impress dispassionate judges in the Hollywood meat market
can leave you agitated and confused about what you really
feel. As Ellie drives from one audition to another, using
her car as a dressing room and rehearsal studio while
undertaking a metamorphosis from Southern belle into
foul-mouthed junkie prostitute, you feel the strain.
What's left of yourself once you have drained away your
emotions in pursuit of an authenticity that, if you're
lucky, will probably be squandered on a bit part in a
second-rate television series?
The visually crude, digital-video "Ellie Parker"
originated as a 16-minute short that was first shown at the
2001 Sundance Film Festival, before Ms. Watts became a star.
It was shot sporadically over four years in the breaks
between her higher-profile projects. For Ms. Watts, it is a
small, brave acting tour de force.
Ellie Parker
Opens today in Manhattan.
Written and directed by Scott Coffey; directors of
photography, Mr. Coffey and Blair Mastbaum; edited by Matt
Chesse and Catherine Hollander; music by Neil Jackson, songs
performed by Built Like Alaska; produced by Mr. Coffey,
Naomi Watts,
Mr. Chesse and Mr. Mastbaum; released by Strand Releasing.
Running time: 95 minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Naomi Watts (Ellie Parker), Rebecca Rigg (Sam),
Scott Coffey (Chris), Mark Pellegrino (Justin), Chevy Chase
(Dennis) and Blair Mastbaum (Smash).
posted by EP at 12:15 PM
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