← Back to Reviews
in
I kept flipping during this one. One minute I thought it was an average drama, the next I thought no it’s actually quite entertaining. I did laugh out loud at several points at some of the comedy but there are other cringe moments (the poorly told joke told in the car). It’s probably somewhere in between.
Jeffrey Wright is solid as the misanthropic writer who jokingly writes a trashy book to prove popular culture is nonsense. There are a lot of messages here and the film gets a bit lost in all of them – during it all, we are exposed to divorce, suicide, affairs, sudden illness, grief, homosexuality, racism, mid life crisis, dysfunctional families, sibling rivalry, motherhood, addiction, relationship troubles and more. There’s literally everything here. All bases covered. It’s all a bit too much to pack in to a less than 2 hour film and as a result just seems forced. It’s all in your face and then of course settles down in a hopeful predictable ending with everyone in the family settling their differences via an out of place 'film within a film' type sequence. It is not a bad film, there is some good direction. It’s just all a little too whimsical, when it's actually trying to be a serious drama.
As for being nominated for those big awards – that seems ridiculous to me. If this was French or Italian it wouldn’t have got a look in.
'American Fiction' (2024)
I kept flipping during this one. One minute I thought it was an average drama, the next I thought no it’s actually quite entertaining. I did laugh out loud at several points at some of the comedy but there are other cringe moments (the poorly told joke told in the car). It’s probably somewhere in between.
Jeffrey Wright is solid as the misanthropic writer who jokingly writes a trashy book to prove popular culture is nonsense. There are a lot of messages here and the film gets a bit lost in all of them – during it all, we are exposed to divorce, suicide, affairs, sudden illness, grief, homosexuality, racism, mid life crisis, dysfunctional families, sibling rivalry, motherhood, addiction, relationship troubles and more. There’s literally everything here. All bases covered. It’s all a bit too much to pack in to a less than 2 hour film and as a result just seems forced. It’s all in your face and then of course settles down in a hopeful predictable ending with everyone in the family settling their differences via an out of place 'film within a film' type sequence. It is not a bad film, there is some good direction. It’s just all a little too whimsical, when it's actually trying to be a serious drama.
As for being nominated for those big awards – that seems ridiculous to me. If this was French or Italian it wouldn’t have got a look in.