AMERICAN FICTION Movie Review | Jeffrey Wright | Issa Rae
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- čas přidán 17. 12. 2023
- Jeffrey Wright gives one of the best performances you'll see all year in "American Fiction," a sharp and biting satire that marks the feature debut of writer-director Cord Jefferson. Wright stars as a professor and struggling novelist who writes a terrible book that's chock full of African-American stereotypes, just to prove a point -- then is shocked when it becomes a legitimate hit. Co-starring Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. Brown, Leslie Uggams, Erika Alexander and John Ortiz. In limited theatrical release now, opens wider Dec. 22.
#americanfiction #jeffreywright #issarae
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Just saw the movie in theater today. Theater was fairly full. Thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end. Enjoyed being surprised many times. A 9 for me.
It's nice to see Jeffrey Wright becoming a household name.
Is this comment from the 90s…..
Finally saw this today and absolutely loved it. The cast was great, so refreshing while it does have a number of comedic moments I really enjoyed the dramatic and emotional moments with this family. Wright and Brown deserve their award season recognition, hopefully they can win one of the big awards.
So glad! Yes, both actors are tremendous here.
As a gay black man, I felt Brown's character was a bit slight and not nuanced enough. I know it wasn't his movie, but I would have liked to see more development of that character.
Seen over 250 movies in theaters this year and it's in serious contention for my favorite movie of the year.
That's wonderful! Let us know what you end up picking.
I loved Jeffrey Wright ever since his amazing performance as Roy Cohn's nurse in "Angels In America"
I saw it yesterday and I loved it. I thought the last scene on the Hollywood lot was a great ending. Definitely one of the best movies of the year for me
Fantastic movie! Its a movie that satirically explores Class & Diversity within the Black community & how the main stream simply lumps the race into one & encourage / demand a certain stereotype.
Rooting hard for Jeffrey Wright & writer-director Cord Jefferson during Awards Season, have loved Cord's work on HBO's Watchmen, Station Eleven, The Good Place & Master of None.
Cord Jefferson is going to be on Roger Deakins' next podcast episode, do you ever listen to that? It's really informative.
@@BreakfastAllDay Appreciate the heads up, will definitely be checking it out!
Loved this, and it wasn't at all what I thought it would be based on that first trailer. Probably my favorite scene was the one with Keith David and Okieriete Onaodowan, which is kind of the thesis of the whole movie. Also, I was completely on Monk's side regarding that student in the opening scene -- her opinion on the offensiveness of that word has way less weight than his.
The meta nature of that scene was very clever.
At first I thought he was correct: a course in school, particularly college is the appropriate place to deal with difficult subject matter. _Huckleberry Finn_ was banned from some school curriculum because of the N-word. Like the F-word, context matters like whether a child is saying F-you to another kid or adult, or talking about sex, exclaiming when something bad happens or quoting a song or other work.
However, we learn that it's a pattern that Monk doesn't accept the opinions of women. Not the college girl's, not his girlfriend's, and not his rival author's. (I forget whether or how he disagrees with his sister.) If his mother had something to say he didn't want to hear, maybe he would have gone off on her, too. The irony is that his girlfriend said she liked his book because of how he writes the women characters. I think that's a throwaway line as there's no evidence of that in the movie, in fact the opposite.
Alonso, I love the shotgun shell Christmas ornaments on your tree. It gives me a newfound admiration for your personality.
I can't wait to see this movie! Jeffrey Wright has been incredibly consistent for so many years. What a great actor! I'm happy to see him and Paul Giamatti get so much love this awards season. 👏 Happy Holidays! 🎄
Both great performances this year! Very nuanced, not just cranky, cantankerous dudes.
Alonso, thanks for mentioning The Forty Year Old Version. I had never heard of that movie. I watched the trailer and that's another I need to watch!
I enjoyed this film but I think the novel's original ending that reference Ellison's Invisible Man is more effective. Great review!
Ah interesting, how was the book? Thanks for watching!
My favorite movie of the year. I know Jeffrey Wright is getting some award love. But I hope Sterling K Brown gets a nomination. Maybe his best performance.
“Earrrrrned.” Loving the John Houseman reference
We make money the old fashioned way.
A hilarious, impactful and heartfelt performance from Wright. I realize he may be the great actor of this era
Happy Holidays Christy & Alonso 🎉 🎁🎄
Likewise, Sachin!
Just saw the movie today. So clever, funny and well acted.
This sounds really good! What a great cast!
so well deserved for Jeffrey Wright
American Fiction. The Holdovers. Two movies every American should see.
My first reaction to this was "hmm, it's Spike Lee's Bamboozled in the literary world." This does sound very interesting though.
Good point Jeremy! And thanks for your Lunch Date questions. Video coming soon on Patreon 😊
Funny how people think this is new and exciting, so should get awards, yet it's similar to the Spike Lee movie from 2000.
In the movie, _Weeds_ Nick Nolte's character in prison writes a play about prisoners that gets the attention of a reporter then theater critics, and he and his troupe get to perform it, though it's only successful at other prisons. But someone finally discovers that it's based on a French play that he read in prison.
i think it's closer to robert townsends hollywood shuffle.
Heard some good things about the movie. Been behind in my movie watching, but hope to catch this too.
By the way, is Monster playing near you folks? Heard great things about this Japanese import as well. Would love to hear your take, if you see it.
Saw this last night and absolutely loved it. It's so savagely funny but so unexpectedly warm and heartfelt at the same time. Lots of valuable and timely insight about the pandering and shallow ways our culture often discusses race, and how people are reduced to their surface-level identities and nothing more. I miss these kinds of smart, fun adult studio comedies!
So glad you found this film!
Christy, Alonso, great show. P.S., here's a fun podcast episode you might like... about the history of movie polls. Podcast by Jeopardy! host Ken and musician John Roderick. (They don't usually talk about movies, but did this time.)
This looked super good. I'm glad it's not a disappointment!
This is based on a book by Percival Everett who is a smart, honest, and original writer. I was fortunate to hear him live in San Diego several years ago.
Oh very cool, the book sounds good, too.
It's really good. If you're searching for a new, interesting film to watch, definitely watch this.
8.9? Come on man. It's Christmas. Give it the 9.
Will you be reviewing another movie All of us Strangers ? thanks let me know …I can’t wait to see American Fiction Jeffery Wright is a good actors
Yes, today!
This movie is theatrical art and Oscar worthy, not like the make believe superheroes hanging from cables next to green screens.
The multi-endings had me thinking we were dealing with something akin to Clue a-la three different endings but we decide what's canon.
First thing I saw Jeffrey Wright in & thought he was really good in it was George Clooney's Syriana.
Sounds like a very clever premise
I, too, thought that Wright's character in this film and Giamatti's character in The Holdovers had similar personalities.
They could be buddies, right? Intellectual misanthropes commiserating across time.
Scituate was known as the Irish Riviera. Pejoratively so. Strong lobster industry. A lot of working class but it's on the water so it has become more upperclass.
Good to know, thanks!
Great movie in so many ways…
I love Jeffrey Wright and I'm so happy for him. This movie is right in my happy place so I will be checking it out! It sounds like a nice Sunday afternoon movie!
Please do, and let us know what you think!
Loved the movie but hated the ending. I do feel they avoided answering questions and to resolve the story. The whole feel of the movie changed in the last 10 minutes and that did not sit well with me.
This movie was so hilarious including the shootout ending.
Vais a hacer un top 10 mejores peliculas 2023?
Si, la primera semana en enero.
Looks good
Just saw it, fantastic
Not nearly as bitiing as, let's say, "The Player' which is a different media form, true, but why make Wright's character a fugitive? Yes, that'll hype sales but also spark the hounds that will ultimately lead to unmasking the ruse; and the movie "endings' provided at the end don't pay off, especially one involving a police raid that's totally ridiculous; but then, so was the sell-out ending for the movie in The Player so I guess i've cancelled out my point; lol.
No, you're correct in that the ending here doesn't pay off. There's no consequences, and he hasn't grown as a character. I thought the raid in the trailer was hilarious, following his agent's comment "You haven't done anything, it's not like they can arrest you."
Better to just watch the trailer again, have a good laugh, and imagine what the movie could have been.
czcams.com/video/i0MbLCpYJPA/video.html
By comparison, the movie _The Book of Clarence_ started as comedic, but instead of turning into a family tragedy like this, turned into what's called "a redemption story." Some people rightly felt a movie shouldn't change in tone halfway through, but I was invested. I felt the ending was a good payoff for who Clarence was and what he did.
Ha, thanks for your thoughts! Glad you caught up with this.
_American Fiction_ was a disappointment, particularly with the ending. I laughed out loud at the first trailer. I didn't realize it had started as a limited-release movie on Dec 15, 2023, but thought it had just opened Thursday January 11 opposite _The Book of Clarence._ I felt because of that it split the Black audience that would have otherwise gone to the latter movie. I was worried that because it wasn't in the top ten of the week I wouldn't be able to see _American Fiction_ before it left the theater, as I missed two movies that were only there a week last year. If you liked the trailer I would recommend just watching it a few more times and imagining what the movie should have become based on that.
Both movies give us a bait-and-switch with the trailer pretending to be comedies but are really something else. This movie starts with the joke premise but soon becomes a family tragedy, though they didn't have the guts to make the ending "real." _The Book of Clarence_ also is presented as a comedy, but by the second half (or third act?) it becomes what at least one person calls "a redemption story." In that case I was able to take the turn with it, as we expected his ploy of pretending to perform miracles and posing as a messiah would have repercussions. However, in _American Fiction_ we expect there to be consequences for the main character's Monk's actions of perpetrating a fraud (although using a pseudonym may be accepted in that line of work) but there really wasn't. Remember _Tootsie?_
Another thing of note is that Monk's girlfriend says she liked his book because he writes women well, but I think this was a throwaway line. The irony in the movie is that he either doesn't hear the opinions of women, or is actively hostile to what they're saying, starting with the girl who challenges him in his class, to his girlfriend, to his rival who made the successful low-class book that inspired him to write his book as a parody.
I haven't seen hardly any of the "awards-contention" movies this year because they almost all seemed depressing (except for _Barbie)._ Giving this one an award is like the main character getting an award for his work: a travesty.
If the message of mocking anti-intellectualism stays true throughout the film, then I'll surely enjoy it!
8.2? No way!
I ❤ _The Forty Year Old Version_
Right? Not enough people saw it.
This was the first time in a while a Hollywood movie made a scathing critique of the super progressive leftist Hollywood and Hollywood STILL ate it up. It could be a while before a movie pulls off a trick like that again.
It was impressive!
Wow... Alonzo actually liked a movie? Mark it on the calendar.
I mean, he cried at Barbie, so…
Alonso likes lots of movies. Take a look around our channel and stay a while.
it was really good, very funny
This movie was great. Headed the ending though
Why did you hate the ending?
Uh uh I wanted what I saw on the first trailer . I felt bamboozled . I feel like the writter was talking down on hood experiences to put his experience up. Only ignorant people would think every black person is hood. Not the worst movie it was watchable but wasn’t great.
I must be missing something here. I found this movie thought it was way more clever than it thinks it is.
Its a movie with black people, about black people but it's not really serving any reality. I don't recognize these characters dynamic.
These 2 "reviewers" are the exact people this movie is mocking
Wait, this is confusing, we liked the movie. Appreciate you watching, though.
This movie reminds me of woody Allen. Am I the only one who thinks this? 🤷🏻♂️
No. Brittany did not deserve kindness. Brittany deserved to be smacked. I thought Monk actually showed great restraint.
I’ve had that conversation before with a white person telling me that they were SO offended by the “N-word”. And, I’m like, there’s nothing for you to be offended about because it’s not aimed at you; it’s aimed at us.
Trying to co-opt outrage that has nothing to do with you is just another aspect of white entitlement. I mean, I don’t like racial slurs that are aimed at Asians or Latinos but those aren’t my words so I can’t be offended by them even though I’m a person of color, too. Or, rather, there are levels of offense and that little girl, Brittany, was taking *personal* offense, which she can’t do with her white self.
It’s fine that she walked out because she wasn’t bright enough to do well in his class, anyway.
Also, as a Black intellectual and academic who also went to an Ivy League school, I didn’t find Monk “unlikeable” at all. I found him smart and charming. Ha!
Of course, I also didn’t grow up with the alarming family trauma that he did, so who knows if I would have become bitter and closed off like him if I had. Not that my family is perfect but his family was an absolute train wreck. The more I found out over the course of the movie, the worse I felt for him. I think the movie should have ended with him writing a book about his own family. That is the act that would have healed him, I think. He was carrying all of that trauma inside. That book, whether autobiographical or fictional, would have been a real transformative work of literature. What Monk dealt with are things people of his generation are dealing with all over: aging parents, a career that isn’t going as well as you hoped back when you were 20. It’s a classic Sandwich Generation story - only he’s Black.
I wish the movie had ended that way. I didn’t care too much for the ending although I saw why they did it that way.
“American Fiction” is really, I think, the successor to the New York movies Woody Allen made in the 80’s, like “Hannah and Her Sisters”. Like Monk, Allen’s characters were always the intellectual on the outside looking in, defined and confined by his Jewishness as much as Monk is by his Blackness, whether either of them wants to be defined that way or not.
I've been hearing about this movie for a while but hadn't seen a trailer or heard somebody talk about the plot yet.
This is virtually the same premise of Spike Lee's Bamboozled, but less combative and without black face. I'm sure there are other differences, but the premise is so similar the fact that nobody ever mentions the similarity is kind of shocking to me.
Forgot about Bamboozled! Thanks for making the comparison.
Agree. How "original" can an awards-contender movie be if Spike Lee did a similar one in 2000?
@@sandal_thong8631
I'm just surprised how similar it is and nobody brings it up. Don't Look Up was compared to Dr. Strangelove repeatedly, usually disparagingly.
I really don’t like Jeffrey wright but it still sounds interesting
Have you seen Hold The Dark?
Why don't you like him?
Lol what? So random 😆
@@Locusto199 he has bad politics and wouldn’t shut up about “Bernie bros”
@@tlovehater I said I was still interested in the movie
My issue w/ Wright is I can see him acting, or I guess over acting in his roles. The high score you guys gave will have me giving it a shot but who knows when.
Wasn’t this the plot of Bamboozled
You know that awful spike Lee film
This movie was not great. Wright is very unlikable, the humor making fun of white people showed a double standard. If white people made a movie making fun of black people, it would be offensive and considered trash, not award winning.
That didn't bother me, in fact they should have done more of that instead of the family tragedy. What bothered me was how his girlfriend says he writes female characters well (though we never see that) but then turns around and gets hostile to women's opinions: hers, the college girl's, and his rival author's that inspired him to write his book.
@@sandal_thong8631 More of that? Why? A comedy that is not funny would be even worse. Done less tragedy I agree with.
@@tonyg76 Comedy is subjective, and the first trailer had me laughing out loud. I heard several laughs in the theater at the beginning of the movie, but after the tragedies, not so much.
One joke was about a guy in a broken rowboat that couldn't swim, so had to decide to row versus wade.
This movie really surprised me. I’m not really into comedies because the only comedy that consistently makes me laugh is Borat, so I had low expectations and was only looking forward to them making fun of upper class white liberals. But jokes like the black voices joke or the bipoc victim of the carceral state joke are so smart and hilarious they made the movie an 8/10 for me.
I found this movie painfully boring, themes were way too on the nose. Film thought it was being clever commenting on black experiences but failed.
Nah. Sir, you're very eloquent. But if you were Black you might have noticed that every racial reference in the movie was written on the nose. Overall, the end result is this movie was more of an essay making points than an honest, let alone courageous work of art. But you (and everyone else) is falling for the trap. . . just like people did for the book in the movie.
For a learned, insightful take on it, watch Armond White's interview.
Armond White hates everything, by design. He's a one-trick pony and you'll get nothing insightful from him.
@hoos3014
Hello, good sir. What does what you said have anything to do with what I say?
P.S. Think well. Think carefully.
@@shadotunga5529 You recommend White's review so you ought be delighted to support his work.
I was a little confused when Alonso dropped the title of this one! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forty-Year-Old_Version
It's very good!