"American Fiction" | December 2023 | starring Jeffrey Wright, Issa Rae & Sterling K. Brown

[humminbird]

I can't wait to see it but it's not playing anywhere near me
I gotta drive like an 1:30 away

 

[NobodyReally]

I think this is my favorite movie of the year. It was brilliant. Funny, nuanced and complex, and you really could not predict where it was going. I also love all of the meta commentary about publishing and writing in general. It was just a really refreshing and cool movie. I think it may become a cult classic as more people discover it. I gotta check out the writers and directors other stuff because this really satisfied my thirst for a authentic, quirky and complex Black characters. 9.5/10.

 

[Big Boss]

Need to watch this

 

[re'up]

I think this is my favorite movie of the year. It was brilliant. Funny, nuanced and complex, and you really could not predict where it was going. I also love all of the meta commentary about publishing and writing in general. It was just a really refreshing and cool movie. I think it may become a cult classic as more people discover it. I gotta check out the writers and directors other stuff because this really satisfied my thirst for a authentic, quirky and complex Black characters. 9.5/10.

Saw this last night. Lots of thoughts and would love to talk with someone who saw it.

The movie caught me off guard, I was expecting a funnier, more satirical movie, along the lines of a more subdued Sorry To Bother You, or Bamboozled, or the funnier moments of a show like ATL, recalling the Spotify scenes, or Rap shyt

this is more like The Player. An intricate and nuanced family drama/comedy, that didn't feel predictable or formulaic, the movie felt so lived in to me. Like these were real people, and real houses, very naturalistic direction and the jazz soundtrack contributed to that. The earliest scenes with Wright and Tracee Ellis Ross were great. Set the tone for the rest of the movie. One of my favorite things to do with my own sister is drive around with her right when I get to her area, and just talk and rant to each other.

Sterling K Brown's performance was impeccable. Also, have to credit the writing, which allowed for him to be gay, without making it a central theme, or message movie, just about family, acceptance, and real life. Also, the fact he used oxy without making it again a central theme about drug addiction and redemption, just a guy who is a little fukked up in life at the moment. The scenes with him, Wright, and Coraline were beautiful.

The satire, when applied was razor sharp and very funny, but the movie doesn't really go for laugh lines, or cheap shots, though I laughed a lot more than most of the audience. Issa Rae was perfect. Her perspective intelligently drawn and delivered. The ending sequence was so good to me. The breaking the 4th wall aspect, the kind of examination of what people love about movies, white and black, but mostly white, the kind of obsession we have with making redemption movies or tear jerk message movies, and not just stories like this.

Small things Iliked:

Keith David, who is in Sugar Hill, in a great scene

John Ortiz was great, he had a quote like "message movies with important themes"

The Hollywood producer scenes, with the soda, the whole "they smoked him", "I did a month for some interstate commerce shyt"

There's a quote in Collateral were Tom Cruise says about jazz:

It's off melody Behind the notes Not what's expected, Improvising like tonight (it's not a coincidence that American Fiction score is all jazz)

That's how this movie felt, off melody and behind the notes-- at times the tone shifts were rough and not as smooth as maybe they could be, you can feel the comedy momentum/satire building, only to be back in Boston, in a different movie, about family, the small moments in life, casual weddings and family reunions, and what's and whose family and what it means. But, I think it's pretty perfect. I can see white people and certain people disliking this. It has no easy answers. No real redemption. No degradation or slavery. No "we can all get along", but it's closer to real life. If this wins an Oscar, that would the ultimate kind of ironic reward.

 

[YvrzTrvly]

Incredible movie typical coli with trash posted throughout the forum and this is buried

 

[re'up]

It's not a movie I want to see again right away, like maybe Ferrari either, it's something to kind of savor and reflect on, and let kind of settle with you.

 

[Mission249]

The movie caught me off guard, I was expecting a funnier, more satirical movie, along the lines of a more subdued Sorry To Bother You, or Bamboozled, or the funnier moments of a show like ATL, recalling the Spotify scenes, or Rap shyt

this is more like The Player. An intricate and nuanced family drama/comedy, that didn't feel predictable or formulaic, the movie felt so lived in to me.

Great review.
I agree: the movie was different than I expected. And, to be honest, if the trailer didn't lean into what we all thought the movie was going to be about, a lot of us wouldn't have checked for it.

The movie was a Trojan horse containing a modern black family drama. The kind of movie that doesn't get made anymore. We're always looking for some hook - a shared universe, hot new star, nostalgic callback, a surprise ending - some gimmick. But I'm happy the trailer misled me.

 

[Rollie Forbes]

 

[CoryMack]

I liked it. One of the better movies that has come out recently in my opinion

 

[Roland Coltrane]

just tried to go see it

and failed

left a third of the way through

but not for the reasons you think

there were wayyyyyy wayyyyyy too many fukking white people in there laughing extra hard and loud unironically all the way through

it's like they don't even know they're proving the premise of the movie

at some point it's like "get the fukk outta here, this shyt ain't for you. Cacs."

I didn't wanna let them win, but I left man.

this is not the type of media I want to consume with white people

I'm happy the movie got legs and it's being shown in more theaters but damn.

this must be what Black rappers feel like when they look in the audience and it's all white people

Great movie from what I saw, but it's like Sean Price said

"I don't watch Roots with white nikkas."

I wish these NPR- supporting well-meaning white liberals would just go away

I felt like that should have been a Black space for us to laugh about some in-house shyt

not to be invaded by white people

at least I paid and supported the movie

I'm gonna have to catch it another time and support it twice

 

[patscorpio]

i finally saw the trailer before i watched the book of clarence...shyt i now i gotta make time to watch this

 

[Jean toomer]

Brilliant movie. That is all.

 

[mastermind]

just tried to go see it

and failed

left a third of the way through

but not for the reasons you think

there were wayyyyyy wayyyyyy too many fukking white people in there laughing extra hard and loud unironically all the way through

it's like they don't even know they're proving the premise of the movie

at some point it's like "get the fukk outta here, this shyt ain't for you. Cacs."

I didn't wanna let them win, but I left man.

this is not the type of media I want to consume with white people

I'm happy the movie got legs and it's being shown in more theaters but damn.

this must be what Black rappers feel like when they look in the audience and it's all white people

Great movie from what I saw, but it's like Sean Price said

"I don't watch Roots with white nikkas."

I wish these NPR- supporting well-meaning white liberals would just go away

I felt like that should have been a Black space for us to laugh about some in-house shyt

not to be invaded by white people

at least I paid and supported the movie

I'm gonna have to catch it another time and support it twice

You should stop paying attention to white people and having them fukk up your enjoyment of things. It’s not healthy.

 

[NobodyReally]

just tried to go see it

and failed

left a third of the way through

but not for the reasons you think

there were wayyyyyy wayyyyyy too many fukking white people in there laughing extra hard and loud unironically all the way through

it's like they don't even know they're proving the premise of the movie

at some point it's like "get the fukk outta here, this shyt ain't for you. Cacs."

I didn't wanna let them win, but I left man.

this is not the type of media I want to consume with white people

I'm happy the movie got legs and it's being shown in more theaters but damn.

this must be what Black rappers feel like when they look in the audience and it's all white people

Great movie from what I saw, but it's like Sean Price said

"I don't watch Roots with white nikkas."

I wish these NPR- supporting well-meaning white liberals would just go away

I felt like that should have been a Black space for us to laugh about some in-house shyt

not to be invaded by white people

at least I paid and supported the movie

I'm gonna have to catch it another time and support it twice

I feel you. Most of my theatre was white and it triggered my double consciousness to the point where I don’t think I was as immersed in it as I could have been in a black theatre. It’s a racial movie so when white people laugh it does make you wonder why they are laughing. I think Dave Chappelle shared a similar story about hearing a white guy laughing at one of his jokes.

 

[Jean toomer]

Brilliant movie. That is all.

I just woke up and realized the Asian guy on the movie set was the white director’s literal water carrier…