Ellie Parker

Ellie Parker is a fun movie about actors and Hollywood. It just tells the story of a struggling actress, trying to make her way in the business. She had talent, only if anyone will notice.

Watts is great in this small indie feature. It's a real treat and delight.

Worth a watch if you like Hollywood

7 stars

I have been blessed enough to have seen this fine DV short at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Scott is a wonderfully nice guy, and a talented director. His previous short, "Gray Matter" (once linked to the defunct, "Traphik" series, which apparently is a long and saddening story...) Anyways, this is a super film, and Naomi Watts emotes magically. "Ellie Parker" really captures the guerrilla film-making spirit! Mulholland Drive" is a product of these two talents too. David Lynch may be a genius (and my personal fave), but it takes talent to pull the performances off! Scott, I hope you kick major ___ on your 1st feature; you're a real gent and an artist with heart.

I'd be mildly interested in knowing a little more about the background of this movie. It's supposed to be a comedy but I found nothing vaguely amusing about it. It looks more than anything like a portfolio piece designed to showcase the talents of Watts and/or the director and open a few doors, and the fact that it seems to have been a short expanded to feature length makes this all the more likely. At any rate, from what I can tell (to be honest I lost interest after the first fifteen minutes or so and skimmed it on fast forward) it has all the hallmarks of a credit card movie, that is a movie put together with little more than a maxed out credit card and the good will of the people involved. The image looks shot with a consumer grade camcorder although the lighting was respectable. The sound is awful but I get the sense this was intentional, to give the movie a more "cinema verite" feel. To top it off Watts' performance is all overwrought angst --- I have never seen more huge close-ups of an actress sobbing uncontrollably in any one movie. This is the kind of thing that performers expect will really impress producers, reinforcing my idea that ELLIE PARKER was intended as a promotional tool for its star. Good luck. I hope she makes it.