The new movie “American Fiction” is different and highly unusual. However, unlike the recent garbage movies “Poor Things”, “Eileen”, and last year’s horrific “Everything Everywhere All At Once” this film is different good, not different horrible.
Jeffrey Wright plays Monk Ellison who is a college professor and frustrated writer, who for years has failed to publish or make money as an author, despite the highly intelligent quality novels he has written. As a black author, Monk is frustrated because it seems that the wealthy white publishers that always reject his work, want a “black novel”. A book that has foul language and violent themes, or as they called it, “a black book”. Monk’s integrity as an author always prevented him from writing a book like this, just to make money, but due to recent financial issues with his mother, who now needs to live in an adult care center, as a joke, Monk writes a black book, filled with crime, murder, and bad language. Much to Monk’s surprise as well as his publisher Arthur played by John Ortiz, Monk’s book, written as a lark, becomes a huge hit with a publisher that always rejected his previous books. Monk writes this book with a fake name and even puts out a news report that he is an on-the-run fugitive, who committed a crime that was never revealed. This adds even more interest to this novel, which shows very well the insanity of social media and comparing anything that has great quality as opposed to something that is popular at the moment, and all about making money.
There are numerous side stories in this screenplay, including Monk’s sister Lisa Ellison, played by Tracee Ellis Ross, and his brother Clifford played by Sterling K. Brown. It was good to see Sterling K. Brown in arguably his first good movie role since the end of the outstanding TV series “This is Us”. Monk’s mother is played by singer/actor Leslie Uggams, who still has a prolific acting career at age 79.
This story has a very unusual ending, something never seen before, where alternate ideas are proposed to a movie producer Wiley Valdespino played by Adam Brody. Once again, in order to be different in any movie, there is no need to be completely insane, which unfortunately seems to be a new and idiotic trend with some recent bad movies.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating for American Fiction are a very high 93%, with my rating a high 88% and firm recommendation.
The only hope now to stop another disaster during the Oscars, with the possibility that the horrendous “Poor Things” might win for best picture is the movie Oppenheimer, which won Best Motion Picture Drama at the Golden Globes. Poor Things won for Musical or Comedy, with Emma Stone winning for Best Actress. Considering how bad Poor Things is, there is something seriously wrong with the movie industry.
The excellent series The Bear correctly won for Best Television Series along with the two lead actors Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri.
It was great to see Paul Giamatti winning for best actor for The Holdovers.
In my opinion the best picture this year was AIR, which was released in April, guaranteeing that there would be very little chance of winning the major awards this year.
Best Motion Picture, Drama
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures) “Maestro” (Netflix) “Past Lives” (A24) “The Zone of Interest” (A24) “Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon)
Bradley Cooper — “Maestro” Greta Gerwig — “Barbie” Yorgos Lanthimos — “Poor Things” Christopher Nolan — “Oppenheimer” Martin Scorsese — “Killers of the Flower Moon” Celine Song — “Past Lives”
Best Screenplay, Motion Picture
“Barbie” — Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach “Poor Things” — Tony McNamara “Oppenheimer” — Christopher Nolan “Killers of the Flower Moon” — Eric Roth, Martin Scorsese “Past Lives” — Celine Song “Anatomy of a Fall” — Justine Triet, Arthur Harari
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama
Bradley Cooper — “Maestro” Cillian Murphy — “Oppenheimer” Leonardo DiCaprio — “Killers of the Flower Moon” Colman Domingo — “Rustin” Andrew Scott — “All of Us Strangers” Barry Keoghan — “Saltburn”
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
Lily Gladstone — “Killers of the Flower Moon” Carey Mulligan – “Maestro” Sandra Hüller – “Anatomy of a Fall” Annette Bening — “Nyad” Greta Lee — “Past Lives” Cailee Spaeny — “Priscilla”
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Fantasia Barrino – “The Color Purple” Jennifer Lawrence – “No Hard Feelings” Natalie Portman – “May December” Alma Pöysti – “Fallen Leaves” Margot Robbie – “Barbie” Emma Stone – “Poor Things”
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Nicolas Cage — “Dream Scenario” Timothée Chalamet — “Wonka” Matt Damon — “Air” Paul Giamatti — “The Holdovers” Joaquin Phoenix — “Beau Is Afraid” Jeffrey Wright — “American Fiction”
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Willem Dafoe — “Poor Things” Robert De Niro — “Killers of the Flower Moon” Robert Downey Jr. — “Oppenheimer” Ryan Gosling — “Barbie” Charles Melton — “May December” Mark Ruffalo — “Poor Things”
Best Supporting Actress, Motion Picture
Emily Blunt — “Oppenheimer” Danielle Brooks — “The Color Purple” Jodie Foster — “Nyad” Julianne Moore — “May December” Rosamund Pike — “Saltburn” Da’Vine Joy Randolph — “The Holdovers”
Best Television Series, Drama
“1923” (Paramount+) “The Crown” (Netflix) “The Diplomat” (Netflix) “The Last of Us” (HBO) “The Morning Show” (Apple TV+) “Succession” (HBO)
Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy
“The Bear” (FX) “Ted Lasso” (Apple TV+) “Abbott Elementary” (ABC) “Jury Duty” (Amazon Freevee) “Only Murders in the Building” (Hulu) “Barry” (HBO)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Drama
Pedro Pascal — “The Last of Us” Kieran Culkin — “Succession” Jeremy Strong — “Succession” Brian Cox — “Succession” Gary Oldman — “Slow Horses” Dominic West — “The Crown”
Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama
Helen Mirren — “1923” Bella Ramsey — “The Last of Us” Keri Russell — “The Diplomat” Sarah Snook — “Succession” Imelda Staunton — “The Crown” Emma Stone — “The Curse”
Best Actress in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy
Ayo Edebiri — “The Bear” Natasha Lyonne — “Poker Face” Quinta Brunson — “Abbott Elementary” Rachel Brosnahan — “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Selena Gomez — “Only Murders in the Building” Elle Fanning – “The Great”
Best Actor in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy
Bill Hader — “Barry” Steve Martin — “Only Murders in the Building” Martin Short — “Only Murders in the Building” Jason Segel — “Shrinking” Jason Sudeikis — “Ted Lasso” Jeremy Allen White — “The Bear”
Best Supporting Actor, Television
Billy Crudup — “The Morning Show” Matthew Macfadyen — “Succession” James Marsden — “Jury Duty” Ebon Moss-Bachrach — “The Bear” Alan Ruck — “Succession” Alexander Skarsgård — “Succession”
Best Supporting Actress, Television
Elizabeth Debicki — “The Crown” Abby Elliott — “The Bear” Christina Ricci — “Yellowjackets” J. Smith-Cameron — “Succession” Meryl Streep — “Only Murders in the Building” Hannah Waddingham — “Ted Lasso”
Best Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
“Beef” “Lessons in Chemistry” “Daisy Jones & the Six” “All the Light We Cannot See” “Fellow Travelers” “Fargo”
Best Performance by an Actor, Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Matt Bomer — “Fellow Travelers” Sam Claflin — “Daisy Jones & the Six” Jon Hamm — “Fargo” Woody Harrelson — “White House Plumbers” David Oyelowo — “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” Steven Yeun — “Beef”
Best Performance by an Actress, Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Riley Keough — “Daisy Jones & the Six” Brie Larson — “Lessons in Chemistry” Elizabeth Olsen — “Love and Death” Juno Temple — “Fargo” Rachel Weisz — “Dead Ringers” Ali Wong — “Beef”
Best Original Score, Motion Picture
Ludwig Göransson — “Oppenheimer” Jerskin Fendrix — “Poor Things” Robbie Robertson — “Killers of the Flower Moon” Mica Levi — “The Zone of Interest” Daniel Pemberton — “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” Joe Hisaishi — “The Boy and the Heron”
Best Picture, Non-English Language
“Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon) — France “Fallen Leaves” (Mubi) — Finland “Io Capitano” (01 Distribution) — Italy “Past Lives” (A24) — United States “Society of the Snow” (Netflix) — Spain “The Zone of Interest” (A24) — United Kingdom
Best Original Song, Motion Picture
“Barbie” — “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and Finneas “Barbie” — “Dance the Night” by Caroline Ailin, Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt “She Came to Me” — “Addicted to Romance” by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” — “Peaches” by Jack Black, Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Eric Osmond, and John Spiker “Barbie” — “I’m Just Ken” by Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt “Rustin” — “Road to Freedom” by Lenny Kravitz
Best Motion Picture, Animated
“The Boy and the Heron” (GKids) “Elemental” (Disney) “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures) “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (Universal Pictures) “Suzume” (Toho Co.) “Wish” (Disney)
Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy or Television
Ricky Gervais — “Ricky Gervais: Armageddon” Trevor Noah — “Trevor Noah: Where Was I” Chris Rock — “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage” Amy Schumer — “Amy Schumer: Emergency Contact” Sarah Silverman — “Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love” Wanda Sykes — “Wanda Sykes: I’m an Entertainer”
Cinematic and Box Office Achievement
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.) “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Disney) “John Wick: Chapter 4” (Lionsgate Films) “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” (Paramount Pictures) “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures) “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (Universal Pictures) “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” (AMC Theatres)
Regarding decision-making within Hollywood production companies, it is interesting to analyze why some classic movies are remade and others are not or never will be. For the remake of “The Color Purple”, the idea is that this movie will be both a drama and a musical. In terms of the number and quality of the musical numbers in this 2-hour and 21-minute film, there were too many musical numbers, and several were too long. Fortunately, the music was not overwhelming enough to diminish the excellent story and acting performances. One number at the end with Celie played by Fantasia Barrino was powerful enough to be mentioned along with Jennifer Hudson‘s performance in Dream Girls, released in 2006. Barrino just might be nominated for best actress Oscar this year.
The The Color Purple is from the 1982 Novel, written by Alice Walker. This emotional story is about two young sisters Celie and Nettie, in the early 1900s, who are constantly abused by their father, including the rape of Celie. Then Celie has two children from her father who are later given away. For the rest of her life, Celie never knows if her children are living or dead. Celie is forced to marry a real lowlife named Mister played by Colman Domingo. One of the hardest things to sit through in any movie is watching the constant verbal and physical abuse of a human being. Both versions of The Color Purple have extreme examples of abuse of Celie by Mister in many scenes, with this version probably even worse than the original. Mister prevents Celie from ever receiving any letters from her sister Nettie for many years adding to the cruelty of Celie’s disgusting husband throughout this story. Like Whoopie Goldberg in the original movie, the Celie in this movie has her moment of revenge with Mister at a dinner, which was every bit as good as Goldberg’s performance. This is why we go to the movies, to see how we would all like life to work out, with the evil people in this world getting what they deserve in the end.
Other characters in this film include Sofia, played by Danielle Brooks, who plays the role originally played by Oprah Winfrey as a overweight and very tough woman, who when hit by anyone hits back hard. Her impressive performance almost steals this entire movie. Taraji P. Henson plays Shug Avery and has several musical performances that show she can both sing and act extremely well.
I thought the highly emotional ending and reunion with Celie, her sister and her two children was extremely well done, even better than the original, making for a very satisfying ending.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is a very high 87% and I agree with the critics this time around and recommend this film.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 