Re: American Fiction reviews
Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 5:22 pm
I saw this just before Christmas, and wish I'd written about it before I fell sick, while my impressions were fresher. I think of it as often very funny (I laughed out loud quite a bit), with a cutting-edge premise that keeps topping itself for a long stretch, and also offers some surprising detours. (Wright's mini-debate with Issa Rae shows unexpected respect for her arguments, even if it doesn't fully side with her.) The script also manages to keep things on a realistic plane, with characters that struck me as believable/relatable -- not an easy balance to achieve, when a wildly satirical plot is in motion around them.
Yet, with all that, I only rate it a B+ film, and I'm not entirely sure why (one reason I wish I had my initial-viewing memory at hand). I wouldn't fully agree with Sabin, to the point of calling the non-literary (family/romantic) stuff boring. I liked the sly observations of family friction: the teasing relationship between Wright and Tracey Ellis Ross; the subtle digs Uggams lands on Wright; and, most impressive, the complicated sibling-brother gestalt, with the far more chaotic Brown obviously his mother's favorite despite Wright's clearly life-long efforts. As for the romance with the lady across the street...it was nothing earth-shaking, but compelling enough, with a relatable-for-me moment: how does a writer deal with his partner admiring a piece of writing he considers dreck? I had the same thought about these scenes that I believe Sabin expresses: they amount to the non-exploitive black-centered work Wright's character says he wishes people read. And, since I didn't find these segments so horrible/disappointing, I was okay with that.
But only to a point....and here I may be getting to where Sabin and I align, and why I only rate the film B+, despite the glittering highs. These scenes are interesting enough in and of themselves, but, apart from providing the need-money-for-nursing home motivation, they don't feel they inherently complete the main part of the film. And, as Sabin says, they may amount to a different sort of black narrative, but they don't feel like one Wright's character would himself create. Had the film delved into why Wright is the sort of intellectually-remote writer he is -- if we saw how his fractured family relationships prevent his writing this sort of family story -- it might have cohered better, and, at the same time, been on to something bigger.
So, yeah: the film isn't Tootsie, a movie in which every moment feels part of the same perfect garment (something of a miracle, given that film's lunatic genesis). But saying a film doesn't rank up with one of the best comedies in cinema history isn't exactly a knock. B+ is a pretty good grade (one I'd have applied to precious few films over the past 3 years). This is a very solid, intelligent, witty (did I mention laugh-out-loud funny?) effort, exceedingly well-acted by a very strong cast. If that only puts it into the lower part of the year's top ten...I can easily live with that.
Yet, with all that, I only rate it a B+ film, and I'm not entirely sure why (one reason I wish I had my initial-viewing memory at hand). I wouldn't fully agree with Sabin, to the point of calling the non-literary (family/romantic) stuff boring. I liked the sly observations of family friction: the teasing relationship between Wright and Tracey Ellis Ross; the subtle digs Uggams lands on Wright; and, most impressive, the complicated sibling-brother gestalt, with the far more chaotic Brown obviously his mother's favorite despite Wright's clearly life-long efforts. As for the romance with the lady across the street...it was nothing earth-shaking, but compelling enough, with a relatable-for-me moment: how does a writer deal with his partner admiring a piece of writing he considers dreck? I had the same thought about these scenes that I believe Sabin expresses: they amount to the non-exploitive black-centered work Wright's character says he wishes people read. And, since I didn't find these segments so horrible/disappointing, I was okay with that.
But only to a point....and here I may be getting to where Sabin and I align, and why I only rate the film B+, despite the glittering highs. These scenes are interesting enough in and of themselves, but, apart from providing the need-money-for-nursing home motivation, they don't feel they inherently complete the main part of the film. And, as Sabin says, they may amount to a different sort of black narrative, but they don't feel like one Wright's character would himself create. Had the film delved into why Wright is the sort of intellectually-remote writer he is -- if we saw how his fractured family relationships prevent his writing this sort of family story -- it might have cohered better, and, at the same time, been on to something bigger.
So, yeah: the film isn't Tootsie, a movie in which every moment feels part of the same perfect garment (something of a miracle, given that film's lunatic genesis). But saying a film doesn't rank up with one of the best comedies in cinema history isn't exactly a knock. B+ is a pretty good grade (one I'd have applied to precious few films over the past 3 years). This is a very solid, intelligent, witty (did I mention laugh-out-loud funny?) effort, exceedingly well-acted by a very strong cast. If that only puts it into the lower part of the year's top ten...I can easily live with that.