|
Here are a few key details about this week’s recommendation.
Director: Cord Jefferson
Writer: Cord Jefferson, Percival Everett
Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown
Synopsis: A novelist is fed up with the establishment profiting from Black entertainment.
Genre: Dark comedy, drama
Resources: IMDb, Where to stream
Drew Can’t Contain Himself…
Premium supporters get access to a calendar of the theatrical releases so exciting that Drew can’t contain himself. Upgrade today and get access before the next update rolls out on July 3rd.
|
Vote your favorite Christmas movies.
Last week, TNMN community members from all around the world submitted their favorite merry flicks. Now you can see every submission, and decide whose is the best.
Squiz, Squizzy.
New monthly supporters get a one-time, single-sentence feature in a TNMN edition. Say anything, and Blake must include it in a future edition. Run on sentences welcome. An example:
“I work in concierge services and a few months ago, I was welcoming new guests to the resort that employs me, and instead of saying that a restaurant was exquisite, I involuntarily uttered ‘squiz, squizzy’ – the customer nervously chuckled, and I told them I’m not sure why I said that, but I remain haunted now almost four months later, so much so that my life is unravelling around me, and I just needed someone to say it aloud to, so here I am, in the newsletter, writing it to over five thousand people (thank you for reading).”
|
What it is.
A novelist is fed up with the establishment profiting from Black entertainment.
If you like these things, then you’ll like the film.
→ Pulitzer prize winning authors. You high-brow motherfucker. Percival Everett co-wrote American Fiction. He also penned the Pulitzer prize winning novel, James, a subversive retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the perspective of fugitive slave Jim.
→ Sterling K. Brown, man-eater. I’m a bit of a sap and I quite enjoyed Sterling K. Brown in This is Us. His sprightly turn as Monk’s gay, playboy younger brother in American Fiction is a very fun contrast to his breakout role.
→ Thinking. You like thinking. It’s why you read this newsletter. Ever think about how there’s a big old cash cow of a White market interested in Black storytelling? American Fiction focuses its thesis on this, and it’s quite an interesting jumping off point for a character study.
What I think.
Every once in a while, someone puts out a feature directorial debut that could easily be mistaken as the capstone work of a seasoned filmmaker. Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction is just that: a deeply mature piece of filmmaking that is also his first feature-length as a director.
It’s not a perfect film. Some might feel its conclusion leaves something to be desired. Some might call it heavy-handed. Maybe it is. But expecting perfection in art is frankly a sort of annoying quality. A quality you might possess that friends often won’t bother giving you feedback about, because that’s just how you are.
One time, I saw someone exit the theatrical debut of a film called Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant. This person, they said that the pacing was off in the film. They exclaimed, the director should have taken more of a beat before the one of the two lead characters ejaculated extraterrestrial orgasmic goo on the other from across the laundry room. His friend graciously nodded along, pretending to be interested. But you and I both know what he was thinking. Should I tell him his personality is like, a little bit annoying? Or should I just leave it? And he left it.
Break the pattern. Just watch the movie and like the parts you like, man.
Jeffrey Wright is characteristically nuanced in his leading turn as the repressed and sometimes unlikable Monk, constantly having to bury his feelings and morals and perspective in the pursuit of success in the literary market. Sterling K. Brown steals the show as Monk’s wild younger brother.
And like some of the very best culturally pervasive films, American Fiction dares to explore something deeply real, and often not spoken about.
A fact or two about the production that makes you say “oh, neat.”
→ The author of the original book gave up the film rights for free. Percival Everett had denied the film rights to his book, Erasure, several times. After talking to Cord Jefferson, Everett gave him the rights for free, which enabled Jefferson to get the film into production.
→ The lead role was written for Jeffrey Wright. While adapting the screenplay from the original novel, Cord Jefferson read Monk’s lines in Jeffrey Wright’s voice. After signing Wright, Jefferson says “That’s when the financiers were willing to part with more money; that’s when it started becoming much easier to get other actors interested in the project.”
