The hunt for a good job can be tiring, time consuming, and occasionally degrading, which is why Ellie Parker, an actress who wants to make it big in Tinseltown, is a beacon who reflects the hopes and dreams of every person who has the needs to Do Something. When we first see her, she is bright, hopeful, aggressive, albeit a little desperate in her attempts to nab that role, going from audition to audition to audition and nary a successful call-back in sight. Her life seems to be hovering on top of a tightrope where the only way is ahead even when the stakes get higher and her predicaments get worse at every turn.
That is, until one after another, things come unraveled: therapy seems to be leading her no place fast, acting class brings her down, her boyfriend cheats on her with her own casting agent, she loses a part to a younger actress who has a Name instead of a name, and she crashes into a cinematographer who after they finally sleep together decides to give her an unwelcome, demoralizing surprise. Her decision to leave the industry comes not as a shock but as a predictability that is numbing because once a person's spirit has been broken, it's a sign that maybe this is not what they should be doing even though they may have the talent to do so. That is, considering she really wants to leave the industry.
The use of digital media gives ELLIE PARKER a documentary-like feel -- Naomi Watts's performance is too real to be acting, and her Ellie is a woman caught under a grey cloud of bad luck who comes across as fiercely talented, at times mannered, but eager to please to get a part. As a woman she has enormous competition from other women and the one scene where she loses a part to a Name starlet is a harsh punch to the gut. Even more so, when her friend Sam (Rebecca Rigg) gets her own job on a cop show and tells her, on top of that, if it wouldn't kill her to take the trash out as she preens and poses in a policewoman's outfit. It's a devastating blow, and Scott Coffey's camera is unflinching in capturing Ellie's agony.
It's a small film, produced by Watts herself and made by friends Pellegrino and Coffey, meant to be seen by an audience who doesn't want to see a grand film filled with practiced performances. There is an ad-lib quality to the movie, down to small scenes where Ellie and her boyfriend (Mark Pellegrino) make love in the bathtub -- it seems real, with no slow takes trying to heighten the moment. Occasionally it lapses into self-conscious cleverness, as when Ellie eats on an ice cream cone only to vomit it out, or when she has that last hopeful audition to "producers" who are stoned out of their minds, but I can see the point -- authenticity. It's probably a tad too long to allow its 90 minute time-frame, and would have worked better as a 60 - 75 minute film, but that is okay: it's still a stark movie that opts to draw a portrait of a failed career and a woman facing this hard reality.
That is, until one after another, things come unraveled: therapy seems to be leading her no place fast, acting class brings her down, her boyfriend cheats on her with her own casting agent, she loses a part to a younger actress who has a Name instead of a name, and she crashes into a cinematographer who after they finally sleep together decides to give her an unwelcome, demoralizing surprise. Her decision to leave the industry comes not as a shock but as a predictability that is numbing because once a person's spirit has been broken, it's a sign that maybe this is not what they should be doing even though they may have the talent to do so. That is, considering she really wants to leave the industry.
The use of digital media gives ELLIE PARKER a documentary-like feel -- Naomi Watts's performance is too real to be acting, and her Ellie is a woman caught under a grey cloud of bad luck who comes across as fiercely talented, at times mannered, but eager to please to get a part. As a woman she has enormous competition from other women and the one scene where she loses a part to a Name starlet is a harsh punch to the gut. Even more so, when her friend Sam (Rebecca Rigg) gets her own job on a cop show and tells her, on top of that, if it wouldn't kill her to take the trash out as she preens and poses in a policewoman's outfit. It's a devastating blow, and Scott Coffey's camera is unflinching in capturing Ellie's agony.
It's a small film, produced by Watts herself and made by friends Pellegrino and Coffey, meant to be seen by an audience who doesn't want to see a grand film filled with practiced performances. There is an ad-lib quality to the movie, down to small scenes where Ellie and her boyfriend (Mark Pellegrino) make love in the bathtub -- it seems real, with no slow takes trying to heighten the moment. Occasionally it lapses into self-conscious cleverness, as when Ellie eats on an ice cream cone only to vomit it out, or when she has that last hopeful audition to "producers" who are stoned out of their minds, but I can see the point -- authenticity. It's probably a tad too long to allow its 90 minute time-frame, and would have worked better as a 60 - 75 minute film, but that is okay: it's still a stark movie that opts to draw a portrait of a failed career and a woman facing this hard reality.