Movie review: ‘Ellie Parker’

Posted by Horror News on September 1, 2007

"Do you think Meryl Streep had to do this [stuff]? "

21 2 stars (out of four) If there is anything more depressing than Los Angeles in general, it's Los Angeles from the perspective of a self-centered, oddly charming would-be actress who plumbs her own shallow depths in the vain hope of finding something worth sharing with the universe.

Welcome to the world of 'Ellie Parker,' a faux-documentary and big, fat raspberry dedicated to L.A.'s underclass. No, not the folks who hang around The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf trolling for hand outs, but the other people Angelenos would rather pretend don't exist: the struggling actors. Not so much up-and-coming as down-and-stationary, they drag themselves from audition to audition, each encounter more soul-destroying than the last. (The reasons for rejection are myriad: not tall enough, not short enough, not thin enough, not young enough, not willing enough to sleep with the director .) The story behind 'Ellie Parker' is exhausting to even think about. Naomi Watts, who stars in the film, and Scott Coffey, who wrote and directed it, teamed up five years ago to make a short film about Ellie, a not-particularly-talented actor hellbent on achieving the Hollywood dream. After showing the result at Sundance in 2001, Watts and Coffey kept filming, adding bits and pieces over the years, following Ellie as she reaches the nadir of her quest--ironically, just as Watts herself was catapulting into the stratosphere of stardom. Read more