Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more

 

Ellie Parker (2005)

Director: Scott Coffey

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Of Hollywood’s big-league young actresses, Naomi Watts stands out from a bland pack. She’s clearly game for a challenge, whether it’s remaking Michael Haneke’s ‘Funny Games’ (her next project) or filming ‘Mulholland Dr.’ with David Lynch. It’s the unglamorous, seedy Hollywood milieu of Lynch’s film that she revisits in this low-budget, handheld digital affair written, directed and shot on a pittance by Scott Coffey, a fellow actor who was also one of her co-stars in ‘Mulholland Dr.’.

Watts plays Ellie Parker, an enthusiastic but struggling LA wannabe actress who drives from one dodgy film audition to the next, trying her best to clamber up the greasy pole of Tinseltown but never getting very far. This largely improvised, diary-like and energetic film is strangely interesting, despite its navel-gazing subject, and Watts is fun to watch in a role she obviously relishes. A sketch of a movie, ‘Ellie Parker’ is an endearing rather than coruscating take on the underbelly of Hollywood, but amusing all the same.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 1873: July 12-19 2006

Email Tweet Share

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Ellie Parker

Cast & crew

Director: Scott Coffey

Producer: Naomi Watts

Cast: Naomi Watts, Rebecca Rigg, Scott Coffey, Mark Pellegrino, Chevy Chase, Blair Mastbaum, Jennifer Syme, Johanna Ray, David Baer, Robbi Chong, Robert Mailhouse, Kim Fay, Viktoriya Smirnova full cast

With: Keanu Reeves

Genre(s): Comedy

Duration: 95 mins


Features

Do overs!

Do overs!

After Race to Witch Mountain, what should Disney remake next?

Gray's anatomy

James Gray wants to push buttons—again.

The next big thing?

Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.

Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema

So you think you can dance, comrade?

Puppet master

Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.

Socratic method

Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.

Wander woman

Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.

Oscars

Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.