A day in the life of a struggling actress

Hollywood Sign, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA

Matt Dillon and Naomi Watts in Sunlight Jr. (2013)

Riley Keough and Taylour Paige in Zola (2020)

Ewan McGregor, Ryan Gosling, and Naomi Watts in Stay (2005)

Chevy Chase, Penelope Ann Miller, Armand Assante, Christopher McDonald, and Alex Meneses in Funny Money (2006)

Melissa Behr and Sherrie Rose in Me and Will (1999)

Chevy Chase at an event for Ellie Parker (2005)

John C. Reilly at an event for Ellie Parker (2005)

Kenneth Cole at an event for Ellie Parker (2005)

Naomi Watts at an event for Ellie Parker (2005)

Rebecca Rigg and Naomi Watts at an event for Ellie Parker (2005)

Simon Baker and Rebecca Rigg at an event for Ellie Parker (2005)

Scott Coffey at an event for Ellie Parker (2005)

Chevy Chase, Scott Coffey, Rebecca Rigg, and Naomi Watts at an event for Ellie Parker (2005)

Naomi Watts

Jennifer Syme

Greg Freitas

Scott Coffey

A hilarious comic portrait of a young woman&apos;s struggle for integrity, happiness, and a Hollywood acting career.

Ellie Parker

Naomi Watts Comic Tour De Force in Predictable Story

&quot;Ellie Parker&quot; feels like an extended episode of &quot;Unscripted&quot; through the funny lens of Albert Brooks. 

It does show the strains of being expanded from a short, for bits that feel like a &quot;Saturday Night Live&quot; routine, and for typical targets for actors -- acting class, slacker boyfriends, friends competing for the same lousy roles in cheesy WB and Fox TV pilots, pretentious indie directors (and I assume it was intentional that the guy looked like Jim Jarmusch), scheming casting agents, and phony producers.

But it still manages to very amusingly have some original takes on Hollywood. The funniest angle is that no one does know who they are any more, whether from class, day jobs, rapid-fire auditions, therapy, one-night stands of flexible sexuality and recreational self-medication drugs, so that they always feel like they are acting in the movie of their lives. And everyone seems to want to be someone else anyway, such as a night out to see Keanu Reeves wannabe rock star in his band Dogstar.

Key to the success of the movie is the amazingly versatile chameleon Naomi Watts. While I presume the short started in 2001 before her break-out in &quot;Mulholland Drive&quot; as a bit of envy revenge when her good friend Nicole Kidman was already getting big roles, it now seems like nostalgia because she&apos;s so beautiful here it&apos;s hard to think of her being dumped or cheated on and so talented as she morphs from tragic Southern belle to channeling Debbie Harry as a New York doll to looking astoundingly like the naive young Hayley Mills and a self-referential take on Marilyn Monroe that it&apos;s hard to believe Leslie Bibb would get a role over her. She has terrific best friend chemistry with fellow Aussie Rebecca Rigg (who I did not recognize at all from &quot;Farscape&quot;), making me realize how few films showcase Watts with female bonding relationships.

While the in-Hollywood jokes get a bit much and the basic arc is predictable, there are a lot of chuckles. Chevy Chase is very funny in a grown-up cameo as her agent.

I know this may come as a shock to actors, but job hunting is just as merciless in other fields so we civilians can relate to Ellie Parker&apos;s travails. It is very sweet that the closing credits include director/actor Scott Coffey&apos;s tribute to the strong women who inspired him, particularly his mother.

Documentary style trailer for this comedy about a struggling actress

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYzY0ZjhkZjMtZWUyMy00MWY0LWFhMzItNmMyZmZhZTRkYjE1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzU1NzE3NTg@._V1_.jpg

"Ellie Parker" feels like an extended episode of "Unscripted" through the funny lens of Albert Brooks. 

It does show the strains of being expanded from a short, for bits that feel like a "Saturday Night Live" routine, and for typical targets for actors -- acting class, slacker boyfriends, friends competing for the same lousy roles in cheesy WB and Fox TV pilots, pretentious indie directors (and I assume it was intentional that the guy looked like Jim Jarmusch), scheming casting agents, and phony producers.

But it still manages to very amusingly have some original takes on Hollywood. The funniest angle is that no one does know who they are any more, whether from class, day jobs, rapid-fire auditions, therapy, one-night stands of flexible sexuality and recreational self-medication drugs, so that they always feel like they are acting in the movie of their lives. And everyone seems to want to be someone else anyway, such as a night out to see Keanu Reeves wannabe rock star in his band Dogstar.

Key to the success of the movie is the amazingly versatile chameleon Naomi Watts. While I presume the short started in 2001 before her break-out in "Mulholland Drive" as a bit of envy revenge when her good friend Nicole Kidman was already getting big roles, it now seems like nostalgia because she's so beautiful here it's hard to think of her being dumped or cheated on and so talented as she morphs from tragic Southern belle to channeling Debbie Harry as a New York doll to looking astoundingly like the naive young Hayley Mills and a self-referential take on Marilyn Monroe that it's hard to believe Leslie Bibb would get a role over her. She has terrific best friend chemistry with fellow Aussie Rebecca Rigg (who I did not recognize at all from "Farscape"), making me realize how few films showcase Watts with female bonding relationships.

While the in-Hollywood jokes get a bit much and the basic arc is predictable, there are a lot of chuckles. Chevy Chase is very funny in a grown-up cameo as her agent.

I know this may come as a shock to actors, but job hunting is just as merciless in other fields so we civilians can relate to Ellie Parker's travails. It is very sweet that the closing credits include director/actor Scott Coffey's tribute to the strong women who inspired him, particularly his mother.

A hilarious comic portrait of a young woman's struggle for integrity, happiness, and a Hollywood acting career.

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