I could give you a top five list of reasons to watch Chris Rock’s latest film, Misty Green, but every reason would just be Rosalind Eleazar. The wonderful discovery Rock made in casting his new feature. Because regardless of how film critics at large seem to feel about Misty Green, Rosalind is absolutely the moment. I will end up talking to, and with, many people over awards season about the lack of diversity within the nominees this year, and every single time somebody brings up the existence, or lack thereof, of Black performers in the acting categories, I will lament the fact that we seem incapable of separating the stunning performance from Rosalind from the hot ass mess that Chris Rock has put her in. This was a tough call for me because I’m very much somebody who will enjoy a movie when there’s a great performance in it. And damn, if this isn’t one of my favorite performances of the year. But the film around it is just so messy. It feels like Chris Rock was in the editing bay and somehow lost footage and tried to cobble a film together based on the remaining footage he had. There are so many plot lines here that are never resolved, things he brings up that he never goes into, and things that just flat out don’t make any sense.

And then I can get into the weeds with things like why Hollywood would have a casting call for someone to play Deena in Dreamgirls, but then have her sing One Night Only, a song sung by Effie. For someone who loves to have conversations about material, I would think even that sequence could have opened up an interesting door to embracing the fact that there was already a Dreamgirls adaptation with Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson. And within that, they did write a song for Deena called Listen, which was original to the 2006 film but has since been added to stage productions. So whatever Chris Rock’s Jordan Green is directing within the confines of Misty Green could literally be this full-circle moment where the song that was not originally in Dreamgirls is now a part of Dreamgirls. Even his remake. Which also opens up a secondary conversation on why we remake things so quickly when the first thing was so great to begin with. He could have had a five-minute conversation on how there’s nothing wrong with the 2006 version of Dreamgirls, and yet still somebody wants to remake it. We do live in a world in which the live-action Moana came ten years after the animated Moana. So conversations about cannibalizing material feel like ripe source material. But we do not go there.

The film actually starts off with a lovely montage of everything Hollywood before transitioning to Misty crashed out in bed, where we learn that she has been staying in this house following the death of a man she knew. His wife storms in and finds Misty asleep, and the two have an intense conversation about Misty’s presence in her life. You would think this would lead at some point to Misty reflecting on someone who she says was not a sexual partner, but rather somebody who saw that she needed a place to stay, had a place to stay, and afforded her the opportunity to crash there. And she has just overstayed that welcome. We never know what that person really meant to Misty, because she never has an opportunity to have a conversation about it with anybody. There are no flashback sequences showing Misty with this former mentor figure. It’s just something that happened to Misty, and we’re moving on. One of the smarter decisions Chris Rock makes here is making Misty neither a gigantic movie star to the point where she can’t move without being followed by paparazzi, nor a complete has-been or never-was. She’s someone who’s recognized. She’s someone who has fans, but she’s also not so high up the food chain that she can’t move about Hollywood without being inundated by fans approaching her. Not that she doesn’t have them. But her hard-partying lifestyle full of sex and drugs would be a little inconvenient if somebody was always asking for an autograph.

And that’s a large chunk of the film. Misty basically knows she has to dig herself out of this hole, as she’s been given seven days to exit the house. She needs to find meaningful work so she can get money to get out, but she just can’t seem to quit the kind of behavior that is not conducive to impressing casting directors. Her agent, Randy, played by Topher Grace, gets her an audition and warns her not to go out and party, and to stay in and memorize her lines. Does she? Of course not. She goes out and parties with her sleazy boyfriend Zach, played by Adam Driver. Boyfriend is also putting it a bit of a stretch, although it’s not a terrible label, considering Driver is in quite a bit of the film. You know who’s not in quite a bit of it? Daniel Kaluuya as Misty’s brother Jay, which is a shame because he’s such a good actor and he’s been very picky with the roles he chooses. I’m not really sure what he saw in this film or in this role because he’s barely here. He plays Misty’s brother, who has bipolar disorder and ends up getting let out of the medical facility where he was seeking treatment. Misty isn’t sure if he’s going to be okay when he is reintroduced into her life, though he seems fine. He’s actually even dating someone who worked at the facility he was just at, and he has a solid lead on being a production assistant on a film.

But Rock has decided to make commentary about racial profiling in Los Angeles. In the background of the entire film, the city is heavily focused on the murder of a college student, supposedly by a Black man. So the police are going around interrogating the Black men of Los Angeles, including Jay, who gets pulled over multiple times. And Rock even makes sure to show that a police officer is Black, so it’s hard to call this a Crash situation, the racially charged Best Picture winner from 2005. No, it’s just one thing that sort of is in the background. I think Kaluuya was in maybe four scenes, and the whole thing feels really underdeveloped, but full of the kind of energy that could have given us a truly dominant supporting performance. Probably of all the supporting cast, the person with the most screen time ends up being Chris Rock, playing Jordan, a director who has had a run-in with Misty before and has complicated feelings about their situation. Because his last film was not necessarily a success, he has very little pull over who is being cast in his new adaptation of Dreamgirls. Misty would love to audition, but will she get the chance?

We do get to see Misty sing in the film, as she does her own rendition of Radiohead’s Creep at a lounge. And she sounds great doing it. What Rosalind takes out of Misty is the idea of consistently hitting a wall. How many times can one person hit rock bottom and still climb their way back up? And is it possible to even regain a sense of normalcy after hitting rock bottom? Can you ever truly get back to where you were? Can Misty Green ever find the kind of work that she believes she deserves, or that her talent warrants? Or is she always going to end up standing between herself and her future? I’m telling you, Rosalind is one of my favorite performances of this year. A fantastic discovery. She has so many wonderful star qualities in her that it’s a shame that A24 gave Misty Green such a limited theatrical release and then shuttled it to Netflix, where maybe people will find it, or maybe it will get lost in the myriad of streaming titles on the service. I don’t think too many people even knew there was a movie in theaters called Misty Green.

And given the fact that the film itself is very lightweight in terms of a Chris Rock project, I’m not sure it’s going to attract many fans. It needs the kind of people to watch it who can separate Rosalind’s performance from the rest of the film, because we almost always have this problem of not wanting to nominate somebody in a film that we didn’t like, even if the performance was good. It’s like the film also has to be good in order to carry you into the awards race, instead of the performance uniquely being separate from the film that’s weighing you down. I know it’s something that’s going to also bog down Cynthia Erivo this year for her adaptation of Prima Facie, a film that is getting pretty brutal reviews, but notably critics are not attacking Erivo’s performance. We have the same case here where most critics were impressed with Rosalind’s performance, but the content of Misty Green is somehow kicking her out of the race. I don’t understand it. And I don’t like it. I think Rosalind is radiant and has the ability to crash out on the floor in one scene, then brush herself off, clean herself up, get her act together, and show up like the star she’s supposed to be in the next moment.

I feel like the Chris Rock that I grew up with in the ’90s, with his comedy specials and appearances on Saturday Night Live, eventually segueing into film, was unafraid and unapologetic. He absolutely took no prisoners, and that’s what made his comedy work. He said what was on his mind. Watching Misty Green, I have no idea what is on Chris Rock’s mind. The film is aimless, and oftentimes when he introduces a theory or a concept, we cut away from it. We don’t dig into it. It’s underdeveloped, undercooked, and it’s amazing that somehow, in this malformed final project, Rosalind is able to create such a magnetic star turn in spite of all of it. I know everybody keeps telling me how amazing Julianne Moore is and how she deserves a second Oscar. I’d give it to Rosalind just for being able to decipher such a winning performance from such a terrible screenplay. This is one of those rare occasions where even though I love everything about what Rosalind did here, the film itself is too bad for me to allow her singular performance to pull this into fresh territory. I want to recommend the film because I want people to see Rosalind Eleazar’s performance as Misty Green. But at the same time, man, this is not good.

I liked Top Five. I love Chris Rock. And to be honest, he’s not bad in the film. But the material does not work. He plays it safe. And for an A24 movie, these are people who do not play safe. So while I’m sure people would normally like to swing in and say maybe the studio interfered and he had a film that went further and deeper, but the studio was uncomfortable with it, so he had to make cuts, I do not believe that for a second with A24. If you’ve been watching their films, you know they do not care. They’ll release whatever. They’re all about artistic intent and merit. They could have had Chris Rock walking around fully nude the entire movie, and it still would have been released as is. They could have had a scene where Misty Green tries every single illicit drug possible, and the film still would have been released as is. I don’t think A24 is the kind of studio to tell a director to cut something due to content. It’s possible an NC-17 rating might have spurred a cut, but given the fact that there is an unrated version of Pillion, I’m going to guess that’s probably also not the case.

So why is Chris Rock’s Misty Green so damn tame? And why was he so afraid to push himself and his film to the next level and give Rosalind Eleazar the kind of film that would have elevated her to the front of the Best Actress race? Because a better director with a better script, and Rosalind would be winning the Oscar this year. Hands down. If this was a Spike Lee joint, I fully believe he would have milked the material enough and pushed Rosalind across the finish line. She’s that good. I would hate for Hollywood to mistake the failings of her film for her presence. I hope to see more from her in the future, because this is one hell of a breakout leading performance. We should all be talking about how she has arrived. And she should be in every single conversation anyone is having about the Best Actress race. Instead, Misty Green flopped so badly that unless some critics like me get out there and start screaming her name at the rest of the world, she could go the entire season empty-handed, which would be an absolute shame. I wish I could recommend Misty Green. I can definitely recommend Rosalind Eleazar, though, who is stunning and delivers one of the best performances of 2026. Unfortunately, in a film that fails her at every turn.

Rotten: 5.5/10