"I remember when the future was a promise... now it's like a threat..." - Naomi Watts as Ellie Parker

Deceptively slapdash, quirky, choppy and odd, "Ellie Parker" is a feature that introduces filmmaker Scott Coffey as one of the freshest and most unique voices working in digital cinema today. I first heard of Coffey when I viewed a short film he made called "Gray Matter" a few years back. This film caught my attention because it starred David Lynch as Coffey's father. The actor looks similar to the beloved director and has in fact had small roles in his films, including "Mullholland Drive," which starred Naomi Watts, the star of "Ellie Parker."

"Gray Matter" was not just interesting because Lynch was in it. In fact, it was an interestingly shot, odd, quirky little film that probably owed as much to Lynch as it did to Coffey's own weirdness and the dawn of the digital age. Watching "Ellie Parker," I was immediately elated to discover that Coffey had lost none of his edge or weirdness in the past few years. His first feature is as odd, fresh and awesome as his short was.

Coffey workshopped this film over the last few years as it began as a 16 minute short that was shown at Sundance in 2001, the same year that "Mullholland Drive" came out. As Ellie, Watts could almost be telling the story of Betty (her character in "Mullholland Drive") before she popped into a audition and blew our minds in that scene with Jimmy Katz (Chad Everett). Ellie is an undiscovered actress and much of this feature is about her endless cycle of auditions for films as weird and eclectic as, well, this film is. Could auditioning for Lynch be any less surreal?

But it is Coffey's oddball style that makes the film so engaging. Shot on DV with Coffey behind the camera much of the time, the film is almost always amazing to look at. Coffey frames images unlike anyone else working in cinema today. He captivates us with his unique eye and the story unfolding before us becomes all the more crystalized and engrossing because of it. I doubt you will find a more visually interesting DV feature out there. Coffey is a force to be reckoned with behind the camera.

And his editing and post production work is simply as weird and cool as his shooting is. There are some amazing montages and quick cuts here. One of the coolest sequences in the movie has Ellie repeating vulgar lines as she practices a scene she is about to audition for while she drives her car. Coffey cuts this dialogue so that it has a most unique cadence and repetition and then sets it to a techno beat so that it almost becomes a music video as much as a scene in the film. It's cool as fuck. It's unlike anything else you have seen in a film before.

To be sure, Watts is quite daring to take on this role. She is listed as a producer here but that's probably because she did the film for free as a favor to Coffey. It is remarkable that an actress of her magnitude (she's about to be in "King Kong" for fuck's sake) would appear in not only a low-budget DV feature, but as the star in nearly every scene and in a film that is as weird and mind-blowing as this one. She ought to win a special Oscar just for being in this film. The fact that her performance is so amazing as to nearly cause a cerebral hemorrhage is only secondary to the fact that she is obviously a genius herself for seeing the genius in Coffey.

"Ellie Parker" isn't for the casual film watcher. But for the bold, for the open-minded, for the strong of mind and heart, this is a film that will blow you away. Do you have the balls to watch this film? Are you honest and cool enough to admit that it's one of the most original and unique films out there? Or do you just wanna go and see Peter Jackson wank off for 300 million dollars again?

Notes:

Also with Chevy Chase and Mark Pelligrino, who were also apparently in the short. Keanu Reeves has a small cameo and is shown playing on stage with his band Dogstar.

Other original songs on the score are performed by Built Like Alaska.

David Lynch is thanked in the end credits.

Coffey and Watts won awards at Seattle. Coffey was nominated for one at Sundance.

The film premiered at Sundance in 2005, and Strand began an arthouse release in November.

Viewed in December 2005 on a DVD provided by the distributor and the Dobie theater.

Report Card

Script: B

Acting: A+

Cinematography\Lighting: A+

Special Effects\Make Up: A

Music: C

Final Grade: A