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Like-minded lovers of the 1985 classic gathered at the familiar address.

The Friends alum makes up half of a messy and pretentious comedy drama that boasts some visual panache but is dragged down by a confused tone You could be forgiven, upon watching the first scene of Junk, for believing that this debut feature will boldly, perhaps ill-advisedly, dare to satirize the industry it’s purporting to join. At a swanky restaurant in LA, four people aglow with self-importance embark on the time-honored ritual of discussing the screenplays they’re working on – specifically, the screenplay Martin (David Schwimmer), is “working on”. It’s classic industry navel-gazing, underscored by a tight focus on Martin’s clammy face as he sputters poorly through a confidence game. Schwimmer, of course, is still best known for playing a perpetually and comedically exasperated sitcom character; it’s hard to square that extremely familiar voice with Martin’s dark bluster on how “drug-addled gen Zers” have “no respect for the communal aspect of the cinema”, an off-putting rant that is also a tad intriguing – who is more pretentious here, the sweaty character or the picture starkly sending him up? Continue reading...

Director Rock establishes the film’s setting of Los Angeles better than the lead character, played by Rosalind Eleazar In the opening scenes of Misty Green, a new film from Chris Rock , a Black actor starts to perform her lines in an audition for the role of Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada . The whimsical, pastel color palette of the scene collides with her deadpan recitation of lines meant to convey nervous excitement. If this unevenness weren’t uncomfortable enough, Misty’s nose suddenly starts to bleed down to her white button-up shirt. It goes without saying that she doesn’t get the role. She hasn’t gotten much of anything as of late, and she is in a very bad place. Misty Green is an out-of-work, Emmy award-winning Black actor with substance abuse issues and a penchant for affairs with married men. The propulsion for the film is that the widow of one of her now dead lovers is kicking her out of the luxury waterfront property that Misty claims was gifted to her by him. Misty, who’s played by Rosalind Eleazar, has seven days to find a new job so that she won’t become homeless. In a different director’s hands, this plot could have been a comeback story in which false starts lead to eventual triumph, making for a traditional feel-good movie. But with Rock’s treatment, the premise isn’t compelling enough to sustain a feature-length film. Continue reading...