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As far as material for satire goes, the literary world is pretty low-hanging fruit, perhaps only bested by fine art collecting. Still, when the jokes are as on point as they are in American Fiction, it can make for very satisfying viewing. Writer / director Cord Jefferson (who has previously written for The Good Place, Watchmen, and Station Eleven) does an excellent job of capturing the essence of Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, the experimental structure of which would make a successful adaptation seem unlikely.
Author and professor Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright, eminently watchable as always) is known for writing acclaimed but poor-selling novels and is growing frustrated by the lack of interest in his latest effort from publishers, who dismiss it for not being “black enough”. On top of that, he finds himself placed on leave from his university and then dealing with a series of crises with his family. One bright spot emerges however when a chance encounter with neighbor Coraline (a charming Erika Alexander) promises to develop into something more.
One night after a few drinks, Monk knocks out what he intends to be a satire of the stereotypical “Black” novels the public seems to want featuring high melodrama, broken families, gang violence, and written in an over-the-top “ghetto” vernacular. His agent reluctantly agrees to send it to a few publishing houses under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh, allegedly a former convict, and much to their surprise he is promptly offered $750,000 for the book. In need of the money, he accepts and plays along with the ruse, occasionally even playing the role in person, but he can’t help but feel guilt for selling out himself and his people, and so makes attempts to sabotage the whole deal and risks damaging some personal relationships along the way.
The movie oscillates between being a razor-shop literary satire and a family dramedy in the vein of Something’s Gotta Give or As Good As It Gets, to surprisingly enjoyable effect. Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. Brown, Leslie Uggams, and Myra Lucretia Taylor delight as Monk’s sister, brother, mother, and long-time family housekeeper respectively, with the group displaying a genuine chemistry in their scenes together. Likewise, the budding romance with Coraline feels natural and comfortable. It’s when it takes its claws out though that American Fiction really rises above. Anyone who follows the book world will instantly recognize what Jefferson and Everett are targeting here and will find themselves laughing out loud at every bullseye hit. It isn’t the flashiest movie, but it’s a clever and engaging look at a specific part of American culture that never forgets to entertain its audience. ★★★★
RATED R FOR LANGUAGE THROUGHOUT, SOME DRUG USE, SEXUAL REFERENCES, AND BRIEF VIOLENCE.
Feb 22, 2024
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I‘ve never laughed so hard at a movie. The ending is particularly humorous. Based off of a novel by Percival Everett called Erasure. Well written. Well acted. And well done.
Feb 20, 2025
This movie perfectly scratched the useless niche-information quadrant of my brain. Right above where the lobotomy scraped the feeling out of my frontal lobe.
This was really good dude! Like, not my favourite rise-and-fall business biopic, but a really solid entry into that world of movies. Best way I can describe this movie is “The Social Network: An Amazon Prime Original Movie”. Like it’s good, it ain’t winning any Oscars, but if I saw this on TV I’d be like “aw hell yeah dude this movie’s great!”
It’s so interesting how this monolithic company which once controlled 45% of the smartphone market essentially shat the bed so hard the bed snapped in half, folded in on itself, and flattened the shitter like a pancake. Part of it was corporate greed, for sure, but a fair whack was just bad luck. Imagine having the biggest status symbol in the world, only for some turtle-neck wearing dickhead to turn around and say “nah I’d win” and completely body you in the span of an hour. If that sounds like your cup of tea, watch this movie.
The plot moves at a good clip, and it kinda reminded me of Steve Jobs, using three distinct periods in the companies history as the backdrop for each act. I will say that the start and end were easily the more interesting parts. At the start we’re watching a bunch of sweaty nerds crack the code of innovation, montages and needle drops galore. In the end we’re watching a multi-national corporation in a desperate attempt to sink its teeth into anything that’ll bleed, even if that means feasting on their own flesh. The middle is more about the slow corruption, the way that lofty ideals start to fall apart in the face of adversity and the desire to be the best. It’s interesting, thematically and narratively speaking, but the real meat and potatoes are those opening and closing acts.
*puts on beret* This movie is a sound critique of capitalism, BUT NOT FOR THE REASON YOU THINK DEAR READER! Yes, this is about a company that started in humble origins and means only to blow up and become perverted by sweet sweet money, but it’s more than that. When a late-stage capitalist structure defines business success as “profit line goes up”, anything less than resounding profit is concerning if not fatal. What starts as a homegrown effort ends up outsourced, quality abandoned for quantity, SUPPLY AND DEMAND BUY BUY SELL. And hey, we all know this. You been to McDonalds recently? Big Mac my ass, that shits a Medium Mac AT BEST. I digress. While that factor is certainly touched on here, I also think it shines a light on the sort of person that world attracts. It takes a special kinda of bastard to run a BlackBerry, and those bastards all share a vice in pride (not the sucking-and-fucking fun kind either). You combine this personality type that needs to control, to dominate, to be the big swinging dick, with an unforgiving system that reduces accomplishment to “does the line go up?”, and you end up with a company that changes the world and implodes within a decade. Hmmm maybe the system is flawed… nah, me want Big Mac.
Stand out performance from Glenn Howerton, he is after all a Five Star Man. There was a feeling here that he’d just play Dennis from Sunny, only now in a suit, but his performance had subtle differences. Explosive, abusive, untethered, but doing a much better job of keeping the lid on. Jay Baruchel also did a very commendable job, taking a character from a weak-chinned autistic-coded savant who can’t hold eye contact for the duration of a swift fart, all the way up to a frazzled, desperate businessman grasping at straws to keep his kingdom from sinking into the sea.
Final Rating - 3.5/5 Stars
Watch this if you like - The Social Network, Steve Jobs, The Founder, The Big Short
have you seen this movie? what did you think? let’s talk about it
Jan 17, 2025
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Movie. Fun and cutting.
Mar 15, 2024
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Apr 27, 2024
When Terry Hayes’ debut novel I Am Pilgrim burst onto the scene a decade ago, it seemed to announce the arrival of a major new talent in the thriller scene. I absolutely loved the book and was very excited to see what he would come up with when his next title, The Year of the Locust, was announced for release in 2016. Unfortunately, the year came and went without the book, as did several more, making it seem as if it might never be published. Lo and behold, 8 years later, it’s finally here, and as it turns out it was worth the wait.
The book is written from the perspective of Kane, a Denied Access Area spy for the CIA. His job is to get into the places that Americans aren’t supposed to go and get back out again without being caught, and he is one of the best in the business. When we meet him, he is being sent to the borderlands of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran to try to gather information about an increasingly powerful terrorist group known as the Army of the Pure. Intel has suggested that they are planning a major attack that will endanger countless people around the world and so it is imperative that he can learn more about the organization so they can be stopped before it is too late. Of course, with these kinds of missions there is a lot that can go wrong, and Kane finds himself in some very bad scenarios, with only his wits and training to help him survive.
Written in a conversational tone and short, punchy chapters (some barely a page long), the novel’s roughly 800 pages fly by. Kane is an easy character to like, and the book can sometimes feel like he’s a friend telling you a story. That story happens to be relentlessly suspenseful though, filled with some of the tensest moments of any book I’ve read in years. I would frequently find myself feeling a palpable sense of relief at the conclusion of a mission, having been every bit as invested in its outcome as the characters involved. Speaking of which, while Kane is the star, the other characters are equally enjoyable to spend time with and help to further draw in the reader.
Hayes has clearly done his homework when it comes to spycraft, providing fascinating insights into that world throughout. Everything is so convincing that it can be hard to tell what’s in actual use or the author’s invention, and while it is all thoroughly explained it never gets boring.
The finale takes the story into some truly surprising territory that readers will never see coming and which raises the stakes to truly astronomical levels. Parts of it require some suspension of disbelief, but Hayes pulls off the shift so well that most readers won’t have any problem going along for the ride. 10 years between books is a long time to wait, but when the result is this thrilling, inventive, and even surprisingly emotional it seems like it paid off. Though, it’s still very early into the year, I’d be surprised if I read a more entertaining book than this one in 2024. ★★★★★
Feb 5, 2024
Tried and true formulas work for a reason, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with hewing to them as long as the result is still good, but it’s always exciting for me to watch a movie and feel like I’m seeing something genuinely new and different. Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, The Lobster) has so far proven very adept at achieving that, even when building stories around pre-existing works, as he does here. Working off a script by Tony McNamara (The Great, The Favourite as well) based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel which was itself heavily inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Lanthimos has crafted an epic tale of a woman discovering who she is when freed from the restrictive, largely male-imposed norms of the society around her.
Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) is effectively the creation of Dr. Godwin “God” Baxter (Willem Dafoe), a disfigured but respected surgeon in a strange, steampunk-inspired version of old London, whose house is filled with various creatures he’s spliced together. When he discovers the body of a recently deceased woman in the river, he inserts the brain of her unborn child into her head and so brings both back to life. Bella’s brain is not ready to inhabit an adult’s body however, and so she has difficulty walking let alone communicating. For some reason though, the procedure causes her brain to begin developing at a highly increased rate, and she starts picking up language and other more complicated concepts very quickly.
Godwin is impressed by this result and enlists one of his students, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) to monitor her and note her progress. Over time, Bella begins to chafe against the strict boundaries placed upon her by her “father” Godwin, demanding to be allowed out into the world, while also beginning to form a deep bond with the sweetly sympathetic (but still meekly complicit) Max. When she encounters the rakish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) she is instantly taken by his promise of escape, but not fully understanding the concept of a secret, she blurts out her plans to Godwin. Surprisingly, he realizes that her need to see more of the world is not unreasonable and so he reluctantly assents to let her go. Thus begins Bella’s odyssey around the Mediterranean, in which she experiences much of the good and the bad in the world while learning to take control of her womanhood.
Stone is magnificent as Bella, completely inhabiting each phase of her growth; from the temper tantrums of a child, to the passions of a young woman discovering her body, to the cool, calm demeanor of an intelligent lady who knows exactly what she wants in life. Ruffalo’s strange, unplaceable accent from All the Light We Cannot See seems to have returned here, though it works far better with the overall unusual tone, and he nails the petulant befuddlement of a man realizing that he can’t handle himself when a woman treats him the same way he has long treated women. Dafoe is excellent as always and Youssef charms in his role, though this is truly Stone’s movie through and through.
The world that Lanthimos has dreamt up for our characters to inhabit is striking and captured beautifully by cinematographer Robbie Ryan (C’mon C’mon, The Favourite again). Likewise, the off kilter yet beautiful score by Jerskin Fendrix is a perfect complement to the story. McNamara’s script has stripped the original book to its most essential pieces and is rife with raunchy, absurdist humor, but it’s the film’s deeper themes that make it truly special.
Bella’s life is initially completely controlled by the men around her. Even if they are sometimes well-meaning in their intentions, they are still forcing their ideas of who she should be allowed to become upon her. It is only when she is granted her freedom that she is able to grow into her true self and begin to thrive. She learns several of her own lessons along the way, with the movie even going so far as to spell out one of its main points for her and us, when brothel-owner Swiney tells Bella, “We must experience everything. Not just the good, but degradation, horror, sadness. This makes us whole Bella, makes us people of substance. Not flighty, untouched children. Then we can know the world. And when we know the world, the world is ours.” Imaginative, funny, charming, filthy, wise, engaging, weird, and wonderful, Poor Things is Lanthimos’ best work yet, and a modern adult fairy tale worth treasuring. ★★★★★
RATED R FOR STRONG AND PERVASIVE SEXUAL CONTENT, GRAPHIC NUDITY, DISTURBING MATERIAL, GORE, AND LANGUAGE.
Feb 29, 2024