Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

BKinzeys Like the films Swimming with Sharks and Living in Oblivion this is a film that will be mostly enjoyed by people in "The Industry" Exceptional performance by Naomi Watts and great insights into the industry.A great lesson in movie-making for the "No Budget" crowd. No huge stunts or special effects. All the locations were local and current. Think "Park Bench: Day" The film fit the budget and not the other way around.Kudos to the Above the Line people involved here."Watch & Learn People!"Sorry, that says it all for me, but sometimes less is more. Unfortunately I need 10 Lines to post. Attempts to pad are prohibited and I may be called on my padding here but in my defense I'd like to use a quote from a famous comedian."Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." Need he have been forced to say more?

evanston_dad With the exception perhaps of "King Kong," Naomi Watts has looked like total hell at some point in every movie she's starred in. She's a brave actress, one with Hollywood starlet looks but without any of the Hollywood starlet vanity.One can't help but feel that she's somewhat wasted in "Ellie Parker," an offbeat, super low-budget film about one struggling actress's daily trials in that vast wasteland known as L.A. The film looks like the kind of thing I would make if I had a fairly high-quality digital camcorder and some editing software. But I do not hold the movie's visual style against it, and it's not for that reason that I think Watts was slumming a bit. No, it's the material that makes "Ellie Parker" a less than (o.k. MUCH less than) satisfying viewing experience.Parker is going through an identity crisis, but unfortunately for us, it's not a very interesting one. She spends all of her time trying to be something that other people want her to be. Even when she's alone, driving from one audition to another, she's practicing lines and accents, and putting on costumes to fit a part. One senses that the filmmakers wanted to show the acting life as it really is for the majority of people in the business: a harrowing, degrading, grueling and exhausting process that leaves those living it adrift. As Parker says at one point in the film, she feels like her life hasn't started yet, and that everything is an audition for some future part. I'm not sure we need yet one more movie that deflates the glamour of Hollywood. I had a hard time not getting frustrated with Parker -- she chooses the acting life, so it's up to her to deal with the consequences. There's nothing stopping her from getting an unglamorous desk job like millions of other Americans who go to work every day and don't spend all of their time whining about it."Ellie Parker" does provide some fascinating glimpses into the entertainment industry, especially in a scene that shows Parker and her friend attending an acting class -- it goes a long way to supporting my half-serious belief that all really good actors must be to a certain extent mentally unbalanced. There's also a delightfully weird final scene that shows Parker auditioning to a living room full of stoned and bored movie producers, a scene that leaves you wondering how certain films ever get made at all.But most of the movie feels underdeveloped and inconsequential, like a film-student experiment.Grade: C

meeza "Ellie Parker" is a deranged, but yet, intuitive film on the struggling Hollywood actresses lifestyle of casting calls, nocturnal partying, and internal conflicts. Naomi Watts was a tour-de-force as the Parker protagonist. Her effusive expressions were a thing of beauty. Watts' acting voltage remains hot in Tinsletown. Too bad the same cannot be said for the Ellie Parker character she plays. Ellie goes from auditioning for a part in a Southern period piece soap opera to going through the opposite the end of the Hollywood spectrum just a few hours later by auditioning for a part in a soft-porn cheap flick. Director Scott Coffey shot the film in video which gave it a reality take. Mr. Coffey woke us up with his tasty-sugary crafty techniques but was a bit "sweet & low" with his cyclical screenplay. Chevy Chase also drives the film with a scene-stealer performance as Parker's eccentric agent, Dennis Swatzbaum. My primary "Ellie Parker" peeve of the film was the arrogant character Sam, played by Rebecca Rigg! The movie got definitely rigged with her suffocating performance. "Ellie Parker" would be an effective prototype study for aspiring female actresses, but will not probably satisfy the general movie audience. Nonetheless, that Parker Sister, Naomi Watts, is the super savior of "Ellie Parker". *** Average

glamourgutter We need the MPAA to create a mandate-Ellie Parker cannot be considered a movie. It seems the easiest conceit of a film plot is making a 'film in a film.' Consider this:you don't need to create sets, they're there already. You can use the director's office, his house, hell, show the casting couch,it's there already for the using! Also you don't have to try as hard, she's playing an actress,she acting, but is she acting in the film or acting like she is acting in the film?Who knows?Who cares!If I had any admiration for Naomi Watts before this I certainly wouldn't now.She has exposed not only her tenuous artifice of her acting and acting in general, she has shown us how foolish we are to devote time and money watching crap fly around on a screen.And I thought King Kong was the coffin's nail...