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Movie review: American Fiction

Jeffrey Wright in a rare lead performance

As a bribe to get her to update her passport, I took my daughter to lunch, and then we bused to the Spectrum 8 Theatre in Albany to see the new film American Fiction on a snowy Tuesday afternoon (January 16) in a near-empty room.

If you’ve seen the trailer, you know that Theolonious ‘Monk’ Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) is a prickly black novelist frustrated that his writing is not “Black enough” to sell many books. At a book conference, he sees how the new book by Sintara (Issa Rae) receives thunderous applause for its portrayal of the Black experience.

Under a pseudonym, Monk writes what he considers an outlandish “Black” book of his own and has to deal with the consequences of the book’s release.

But that’s not all the film was. It touches on family dynamics, specifically Monk and his siblings Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross) and Cliff (Sterling K. Brown), including how to take care of their aging mother (Leslie Uggams). Who was the favorite child? How do those characteristics get passed down, particularly as one relates to others, such as Monk’s potential girlfriend, Coraline (Erika Alexander)? That throughline alone was worth the price of admission.

I laughed aloud several times and often nodded my head in an “oh, yeah” agreement.

They’re missing the point.

As is my wont, I like to look at negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Sometimes, it speaks to how I was feeling. Occasionally, it points out something I might have missed. In this case, I think most of the 7% who didn’t recommend the film missed the point.

“A buzzy film adaptation of Percival Everett’s Erasure, a novel about publishing’s racial politics, misreads what is truly ailing the book industry.” I don’t think it was explicitly supposed to be specifically about the book industry, but rather about how even well-meaning white people can get the issue of race so wrong. My daughter said that one character in particular reminded her of of someone we both knew, and I totally see it.

“By softening the blow with its cuddly human side, American Fiction feels too self-satisfied by half.” The film needed the human side, especially Lorraine (Myra Lucretia Taylor), the Ellisons’ long-time housekeeper, to help contextualize the portrayals.

“American Fiction is an intriguing conundrum. It starts as a sizzling, hilarious satire that manages to sling pointed arrows at most of its targets. However, by trying to become too many things, it ends up sanding the edges off its sharpness.” I LIKED the “too many things” because these people are complex. One critic suggested Monk was “flat,” but he seemed pretty authentic to me.

The ending is a bit murky, but I don’t much care. American Fiction may be my favorite 2023 film, but I must ruminate on it more.

Movie review: The Color Purple (2023)

Fantasia Barrino’s first film

My wife and I saw the remake of the movie The Color Purple on December 26. It opened on Christmas Day and is likely the earliest I’ve ever seen a film in its theatrical run.

Two things ran through my head afterward. While I had seen the original 1985 version in the cinema – nominated for 11 Oscars and winning exactly none – a factoid I did not need to look up – I have a difficult time recalling more than a feeling of mostly despair. The director of that film, Steven Spielberg, is an executive producer of the new one.

I get what Taraji P. Henson said about the earlier take. “’The first movie missed culturally. We don’t wallow in the muck. We don’t stay stuck in our traumas. We laugh, we sing, we go to church, we dance, we celebrate, we fight for joy, we find joy, we keep it. That’s all we have.’”

Black joy doesn’t seem to dominate the media narrative. When I watched Making Black Grapevine, as I described here, I realized how much it’s often missing.

Promotion

Conversely, the movie was so hyped I was nervous. A star of the film appeared every day on CBS Mornings the week before the film opened, plus Oprah Winfrey, an executive producer of this iteration and a star of the 1985 take. My wife assumed it was a Paramount film (CBS is a Paramount Global company.) But no.

I assume it was because Gayle King, the longest-tenured of the hosts, is BFF with Oprah. To be sure, I got some insights. Henson was nervous about singing in the film, and Fantasia Barrino, who was in the Broadway musical in 2007, was worried about acting in her first film. I never saw the musical.

Wikipedia: “BroadwayWorld revealed that the film will not be a direct copy-and-paste adaptation of the stage musical, with elements from the novel and the 1985 film also being featured, including ‘Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister),’ the song sung by the character of Shug Avery in the 1985 film. 13 songs from the musical were cut from the film… while a song cut from the stage production, titled ‘She Be Mine,’ was reinstated for this film.”

Ah, the film

We liked the movie. It looks good, and most of the songs were compelling. The balance of music to narrative seemed reasonable. The acting and singing by Barrino as Celie, Henson as Shug Avery, and Danielle Brooks as Sofia were fine. The rest of the cast was strong, including Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., Halle Bailey, and David Alan Grier. Colman Domingo, who stars as the heroic pacifist Bayard Rustin in the Netflix film Rustin, is the brutal Albert “Mister” Johnson here.

The reviews were 87% positive with the critics and 95% in Rotten Tomatoes. One of the negative reviews was from Lisa Johnson Mandell of AtHomeInHollywood.com. “Just in time for Christmas – a jaunty movie musical about incest, rape and abuse. The musical numbers are gorgeous, but confusing and tone-deaf. They trivialize the gravity of truly unconscionable crimes and the people who commit them.”

This is an interesting concern. If the 1985 film was too dour, is the 2023 reimagining too… celebratory? As a couple of critics opined, is the 1982 book by Alice Walker unfilmable?

Or is the power of forgiveness for even these atrocities stronger than despair? I saw an interview on CBS News an interview of an Israeli man whose parents were murdered on October 7 who was seeking peace, not vengeance. The capacity for grace cannot be overestimated. So, I’m willing to accept the “happy ending” here.

Movie review: Maestro

Bradley Cooper

I really wanted to see the film Maestro. It is about one of my favorite cultural icons, Leonard Bernstein, who I wrote about in 2018.

The movie was playing at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany. As it turned out, it was for only ONE WEEK before it landed on Netflix. My wife and I were going to go on Saturday, then Tuesday, but life got in the way. I saw it on Thursday’s last day in a theater (a/k/a yesterday).

Bradley Cooper recently earned two Golden Globe nominations for this film, one for Best Director – Motion Picture and a second for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. The biopic was also nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama. Carey Mulligan earned a nomination for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama.

Yet, while I appreciated Cooper’s effort – as one of the two dozen patrons at my 3:30 showing noted, Cooper engaged in a labor of love – his Bernstein felt clinical, at arm’s length much of the time. As Maxwell Rabb of the Chicago Reader mused, “Cooper’s second film offers a discordant narrative—a blend of compelling moments with flat notes.”

Hannah Brown from the Jerusalem Post noted, “The script” – by Cooper and Josh Singer – “isn’t bad so much as wrong… barely giving a sense of why Bernstein was such an iconic figure on the American cultural landscape, and focusing on some of the blandest and least interesting aspects of his life.”

THE highlight

Likely, the best thing in the movie is Lenny’s conducting the Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony at Ely Cathedral. Cooper spent a lot of time getting Bernstein’s joy just right. Indeed, I enjoyed the film more from that point forward.

Carey Mulligan was a revelation as Lenny’s wife, Felicia Montealegre Cohn. She was sometimes a muse, often a protector of their children, and she tolerated his infidelities but only to a point.

As this article noted, “Maestro jumps between different periods, using black and white and color to depict the contrasting dynamics of Bernstein and Felicia‘s relationship. The intentional use of different aspect ratios in the film symbolizes the differences in their relationship between the two periods.”

I didn’t love Maestro. Still, I’m interested in how others view it. It received an 80% positive score from the critics and 83% from the audience.

Movies I’ve seen more than once in theaters

Le Roi de cœur

There are only a handful of movies I’ve seen more than once in theaters. These are chronologically by the second time I saw the film.

Midnight Cowboy (1969). Why? Because I had different combinations of friends who wanted to see it. I believe I watched it four times in a little over a year. My favorite part has to be the possibly improvised “I’m walking here!” which I have used on occasion.

Everybody’s Talkin’ – Harry Nillson

Woodstock (1970). A group of my friends saw it, and then, because they didn’t chase you out of the theater in those days, we watched it again. I recall the light projecting to the screen when Sly and The Family Stone performed was purple.

Soul Sacrifice– Santana

Help! (1965) I saw this when it first came out. In college, I saw all four Beatles movies – A Hard Day’s Night, Help, Yellow Submarine, and Let It Be – on the same day.

Ticket To Ride – The Beatles

Le Roi de cœur (King of Hearts – 1966) played approximately annually at a movie theater in New Paltz. “During World War I, a British private [Alan Bates], sent ahead to a French town to scout for enemy presence, is mistaken for a King by the colorful patients of an insane asylum.” I saw it at least thrice, only partly because of Geneviève Bujold.

The theatrical trailer

“Damn dirty apes!”

Planet Of The Apes (1968) – Once again, I was watching all of the movies of a franchise, in this case, all five of the PotA that came out from 1968-1973, after having seen the original when it first came out. At a drive-in in 1974; I fell asleep during the fifth one.

Clip

Annie Hall (1977) – There are a couple of things about the character of Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) which is true of me. One is that I hate going to a movie late because I fear missing something. (Additionally, my night vision is terrible in finding a seat after the lights go out.)

It’s also true that I have internal conversations with myself and wish I could pull Marshall McLuhan out from the crowd to dispel some fallacy.

Seems Like Old Times – Diane Keaton

Sunday Stealing: it’s almost Christmas

Billboard

waiting.christmas The topic for Sunday Stealing is the December 25 holiday, probably because it’s almost Christmas. I note there are 12 questions, one for the drummers, one for the pipers…

1. What is the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received?

It might have been a subscription to Billboard magazine that my then-girlfriend, now late friend, bought for me in the 1980s. It was rather pricey, and it was not really of great interest to her, but she loved me. When I was in high school, I was a library page. I read the magazine before putting it away in the basement.

Or maybe it was the first Hess truck that my wife bought for me in the early 2000s and every year since. I am almost encircled by them right now.

2. What is the worst Christmas gift you’ve ever received?

At work, we had a gift exchange. One bozo filled up a container with random screws and nails.

3. Do you have a favorite Christmas song?

I have LOTS of favorite Christmas songs. Check my upcoming posts and yesterday’s. I’ll pick What Christmas Means To Me by Stevie Wonder or Coventry Carol by Alison Moyet. But I have many holiday albums, religious and secular.

4. Does your family have any favorite holiday traditions?

It has morphed over time. We used to go to my in-laws. It seems recently, and certainly since COVID, it’s been rather haphazard. This is also true, BTW, of Thanksgiving.

5. What is your favorite Christmas snack?

Eggnog and amaretto.

6. Did you believe in Santa growing up?

I believe in Santa now, more than ever.

7. How early do you start decorating?

Once again, it is haphazard. It can be from early December to a day or two before Christmas Eve.

8. Are you an early or last-minute shopper?

In years past, I was ahead of the curve. There was a medieval faire in October, and I always bought something for my wife, but it’s defunct. So, this year, WAY behind.

9. Would you rather give or receive gifts?

With that duality, then receive because I tend to agonize over the correct gift to give. That said, this is a lovely story of giving. There was also a local item about a guy paying for the $2,000 for the Toys for Tots that a local charity had been collecting.

Cinema

10. What’s your favorite Christmas movie?

I’m not sure I have one. It’s A Wonderful Life is a lot better than I thought it would be. Scrooged was interesting in parts. I’ve recorded Elf because I’ve never seen it. Rotten Tomatoes has made a list of the best movies, and they have The Holdovers on it. I’ll say that. Of the old-time ones, possibly Miracle on 34th Street, because I’m a sucker for a courtroom drama.

11. What is one of your Christmas memories?

I wrote about a few of them here. 1966: Christmas was on a Sunday. I delivered the paper six evenings a week, back in the olden days when there WERE afternoon papers, and then on Sunday morning, back in Binghamton, NY. My father, who NEVER helped me with my route because it was MY job, not his – not that I ever asked him – got up (or maybe stayed up) to help me deliver that thick newspaper to my customers on Clinton Street, Front Street, and McDonald Avenue. That meant a lot to me, but I doubt I ever said so.

12. Do you open any presents on Christmas Eve?

Sometimes.