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Ellie Parker
Strand Releasing

Ellie Parker reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 51 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
4.6 out of 10
based on 22 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Naomi Watts, Chevy Chase, Scott Coffey, Fanshen Cox, Blair Mastbaum, Mark Pellegrino, and Rebecca Rigg

In a tour-de-force performance, Naomi Watts captures the rhythms, trials and tribulations of an actor caught up in the whirlwind of her career before retreating to a personal life that is as chaotic as her professional one. (Strand Releasing)


GENRE(S): Comedy  
WRITTEN BY: Scott Coffey  
DIRECTED BY: Scott Coffey  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: April 11, 2006 
Theatrical: November 11, 2005 
RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Nominated, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic), 2005 Sundance Film Festival

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Gianni Truzzi
Watts and Coffey may have vaulted Hollywood's gated enclaves, but this affectionate film shows they haven't forgotten, nor idealized, their days among the ranks of the struggling and ambitious.
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83
Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Watts is a champ for seeing this through now that she's actually famous.
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80
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Ellie Parker is at once hilarious and harrowing, and in being so, seems right on target.
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80
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
The sharpest, most authentic portrait of Hollywood life made in the last several years. (As a movie about contemporary Los Angeles, it's approximately 617 percent better than the monumentally bogus "Shopgirl.")
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75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A good movie, fearless and true, observant and merciless. Naomi Watts was brave to make it and gifted to make it so well.
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70
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Fun, scattershot Hollywood spoof.
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67
Entertainment Weekly Scott Brown
Coffey, a tart comic mind who should cast his net farther from the 405, pads his story with more and more familiar degradations, and Watts plays each one to the hilt.
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63
Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves
Welcome to the world of Ellie Parker, a faux-documentary and big, fat raspberry dedicated to L.A.'s underclass.
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63
Boston Globe Ty Burr
Eventually the energy of the original short runs out and the movie coasts on fumes, but it remains surprisingly enjoyable for all that.
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60
Empire Patrick Peters
A splendid performance by Naomi Watts holds together this smart and astutely restrained lampoon of life in the Hollywood basement.
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60
Film Threat Bob Westal
A rare pleasure.
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50
The Hollywood Reporter James Greenberg
A splendid idea for a film goes largely wasted despite a brave performance by Naomi Watts as a struggling actress trying to figure it all out in Hollywood.
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50
The New York Times Stephen Holden
For Ms. Watts, it is a small, brave acting tour de force.
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50
Village Voice Melissa Anderson
A clumsy spoof of Hollywood, EP always roots for its hapless heroine. But where this trifle fascinates most is in its connections to David Lynch's masterpiece.
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50
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Most of the gags misfire, though some scenes are memorably tawdry.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Neva Chonin
Can't sustain its narrative for a full 95 minutes.
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40
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Watts is in nearly every frame of the movie, so if you're a fan (and you should be) that's the reason to see this.
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40
Variety Todd McCarthy
Without Watts, Scott Coffey's feature-length expansion of his identically titled short wouldn't amount to much.
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38
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Watts is good -- occasionally very good -- and her willingness to be filmed at unflattering angles, in pore-wallowing or with bright blue ice cream smeared on her face is admirable.
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30
The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
It almost seems that Watts made a movie this intentionally scuzzy and low-rent as a severe form of penance to the gods of authenticity for the sin of making millions jet-setting around the world appearing in big, glamorous super-productions. But she goes too far in making the audience suffer as well.
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25
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Shot on digital video, made on the run whenever Watts was available between gigs, the movie is a pointless, tedious eyesore.
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25
New York Post Kyle Smith
Naomi Watts is the only explanation for the existence of the student-y digital video feature Ellie Parker.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 4.6 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Paul D. gave it a5:
Excellent performance by Naomi Watts, who dominates the screen, but the script is just too weak.

Keeun J. gave it an8:
What low budget film is all about. Great characters and the acting is goofy yet realistic. Naomi Watts is great; subtle and able to convey the schizo world of the actor. The only weak link was Coffey putting himself in the film. Using another actor would have been better, the commentary is very interesting.

Adrian L. gave it a0:
Simply awful!

Harold G gave it a9:
Entertaining and delightful. Watts proves that she is unmistakably outstanding in any role she assumes.

Kris gave it a1:
This was a disappointing waste of time. Naomi Watts is occasionally funny, but doesn't make her character sympathetic enough for us to care whether she makes it in Hollywood or not.

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