(title inspired by Etta James' "At Last!" on her 1960 album named for the song)
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL(Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue[some may look nearpurple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise:“You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party"by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the same name)
10. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer) no review yet but soon;more info
In recall of Porky Pig, “That’s all folks!” for this week’s edition of Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark because my wonderful wife, Nina Kindblad, and I are off on a short vacation (hoping COVID-19 doesn’t notice where we are) in celebration this week of having been together for 37 years, after having met by accident (or fate, take your pick) at Paul Simon’s “Graceland” concert in Berkeley, CA which gives me an easy choice for my Musical Metaphorfor this posting. I’ll be back next week with my annual listing of all the Oscar nominations and my (wild guesses, mostly) winner predictions.
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviewsfor our past posts*(scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list). Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like toLikeus on Facebook (yes?) please visitour Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us! Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at ourFacebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us at that site in order to do it (most FB procedures are still a perplexing mystery to us old farts).
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please
use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.
OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.
Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 6,544—a huge drop-off from the marvelous 40-50K of some recent months;never overestimate yourself! (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.) Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue[some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from"Garden Party"by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the same name)
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒Thefirst and last words will be noted with arrows andred.⇐OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens:A.D. 33 Jerusalem: Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield) is tired of being a “nobody,” just wants (as Tracy Chapman says in “Fast Car”) to"be someone, be someone"so he takes a chariot race challenge from Mary Magdalene (Teyana Taylor), accompanied by his friend Elijah (RJ Cyler), which he loses due to not wanting to run over Benjamin (Benedict Cumberbatch), a dirty beggar in the street, along with sidelines harassment from Cabbage (Chase Dillon) and his gypsy thugs, so Clarence also loses the chariot and the horses, putting him in dire debt to Jedediah the Terrible (Eric Kofi-Abrefa) with only 30 days to repay or be crucified (he’s also in love with Jedediah’s sister, Varinia [Anna Diop], which doesn’t help in relations with her older brother). Clarence generally tries to relieve his troubles (including harassment from occupying Roman soldiers led by Antoninus [Tom Vaughan-Lawlor], clear contemporary commentary as they’re White while the Hebrews are Black [accepting an argument often made about these people of this time, that they were of African descent rather than Semites as they’re now sometimes depicted—at least when they’re not presented as looking like Europeans]) with marijuana, although when he joins a group of opium smokers, so high they’re actually floating, he gets the inspiration to mimic the emerging Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth (Nicholas Pinnock), to raise funds from some newly-impressed (duped) believers.
Clarence, an atheist, starts upon his road to manufactured-acceptance by coming to John the Baptist (David Oyelowo) for inclusion into the Hebrew religious community, but John sees him as a hypocrite, slaps him, sends him away. Next, Clarence visits the dwelling of Jesus’ 12 Apostles, offering to become the 13th; they laugh as a group at the idea, but a personal rejection comes from Clarence’s twin brother, Thomas (also Stanfield)—later known as “Doubting Thomas” for initially refusing to believe Jesus had risen from the dead—one of the anointed 12. Clarence replies with his own anger at his brother for leaving home to follow Jesus while their mother is dying. Before Clarence is fully gone, though, Judas Iscariot (Michael Ward) proposes he’ll be accepted into the group if he can free a group of gladiator slaves. When Clarence proposes freedom (with no financial means to buy the men’s release) to their owner (sorry, didn’t catch his name), he’s met with a counterproposal which is that he’ll free them if Clarence can defeat all of them in battle, then changes the challenge to just a 1-on-1 fight to the death with the hulking Barabbas the Immortal (Omar Sy)—at least that’s what he claims about himself (with no disproval so far in any combat he’s had; says he can only die if wounded in 1 of his heels, as with that legendary Greek hero, Achilles).
Through some quick moves, Clarence manages to get Barabbas in a losing situation with a sword to his throat so he surrenders (not clear why if he’s immortal, but let’s not clog up the flow of this summary with logic) so he’s freed to join up with Clarence and Elijah. Clarence returns to his Messiah strategy, visiting Mary (Alfre Woodard) and Joseph (Brian Bovell), Jesus’ parents, to find out how he pulls off his famed tricks; however, they reject this characterization, convinced their son is truly performing miracles. So, Clarence and his little band (joined by Zeke [Caleb McLaughlin]; I forget how he got recruited) go forward with fake “miracles,” as one or the other of his few followers claims blindness or death so they can be “healed” by this new divine messenger, which does result in an outpouring of coins from the impressed crowds, even though Clarence tells them to trust “knowledge over belief.” However, Clarence decides to use his new-found-wealth to free the slaves rather than paying back Jedediah. At this point we see more of Jesus than in an earlier quick scene when he comes upon Mary Magdalene being stoned by a crowd in response to her trysts with some of the Romans; Jesus stops their rocks in mid-air, notes they’re all sinners also which causes them to disperse as he heals Mary’s wounds, bringing about a conversation in the formerly-cynical Elijah.
Next, Varinia’s at a party with Clarence but betrays him by letting her brother know where his debtor can be found. When Jedediah (with Roman support) confronts Clarence for his money, Barabbas attempts to intervene, but Clarence just tells him to run away which he does although he’s hit with 3 spears in the process yet just pulls them out, doesn’t die, then kills Antoninus with no retaliation. Jedediah’s impressed by all this, yet the Romans take Clarence away as they have orders to arrest any seeming-Messiahs. When brought before Pontius Pilate (James McAvoy), Clarence admits he’s just a fake miracle-worker, but now he can be killed for fraud unless he walks across a pool of water, which he does—amazed, uncomprehending about how it happens—but then is scheduled for crucifixion anyway due to the Roman edict. Both Varinia and Thomas visit Clarence in prison, make amends with him. ⇒Thenwe’re back to Jesus who gives long-ago-in-this-story-Benjamin the power to create coins out of thin air so he buys a “makeover” for himself, revealing his presence as a White guy who looks like the long-held-imagery of Jesus in our Western world; he goes around throwing money to strangers, so he’s also arrested as another Messiah, crucified next to Clarence while oddly becoming cynical about any sense of divine mercy even as his portrait’s being painted, an allusion to the image of Jesus so popularized in the West. After Clarence is dead, Jesus tells the Apostles he’ll also soon be crucified, then he destroys the stone covering of Clarence’s tomb, brings him back to life, heals his nail wounds from the cross, leading to Clarence finally believing in Jesus’divinity.⇐
So What?It’s difficult to watch The Book of Clarence without thinking of another irreverent take on the Jesus story, Monty Python’s Life of Brian(Terry Jones, 1979),*which is considerably sillier—and ultimately much funnier—than … Clarence(with Brian often simply being mistaken for Jesus, going back to the coincidence of him being born in the next-door-manger to the true Messiah), which is promoted as a comedy and is in some places. (Like appropriating well-known-Biblical-names for some of these characters: Elijah, Barabbas, Goliath—as well as borrowing the names Varinia [Jean Simmons] and Antoninus [Tony Curtis] from Spartacus [Stanley Kubrick, 1960]—just as elements of older big-budget-Biblically-inspired-movies serve as inspirations for what we see here, especially that opening chariot race reminiscent of a considerably-grander-spectacle in Ben-Hur [William Wyler, 1959] made more restricted—and a bit absurd—here through the narrow streets of Jerusalem [actually shot in Matera, Italy, which easily looks like it could be a Middle Eastern city of 2,000 years ago, also used in a very serious {bloody} manner for The Passion of the Christ {Mel Gibson, 2004}]).
*Back when I was teaching at SMU in Dallas, TX I was also, for a couple of years, a film critic on adult-contemporary-radio station KTXQ FM (“Q 102”); September 1979 I attended (and contributed to the judging of) an international media festival at Universal Studios’ Universal City in Los Angeles where I took a bus from LAX to the hotel, passing the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theater on the way where I saw … Life of Brian on the marquee (produced by George Harrison’s HandMade Films, banned in various European countries, but a financial hit). When I got to the hotel I borrowed a car from someone, found my way back to the theater to see the movie because whenever I left town during that radio gig I had to phone in my reviews and comments live from wherever I was (well, after all, they were paying me $10 for each report, so I guess I had to comply) and was a review short of the 4 call-ins I needed to do that coming Saturday morning, so I saw … Brian(found it be standard-Python-absurd, quite clever in many of its elements[not nearly as riotously-funny as Monty Python and the Holy Grail {Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones; 1975}, however], added a review to my call-ins (once an hour for 4 hours on a Saturday morning, which meant an early alarm given the first one had to be at 6:15 AM due to the Dallas-L.A.-time-difference, then muddled through the rest of the day[and night] at the media festival [got up early the next morning also because you could jog around the Universal Studios property if you went in before they officially starting taking entry fees]).
The satire is even sharper in Clarence's mean-spirited-“miracles," evoking connections to the same hokum practiced by so-called “evangelists” in the rural U.S., conning naïve crowds in order to bring in undeserved donations. However, there’s also a serious aspect in this film which even devout-Christians might be able to embrace—assuming they can tolerate other aspects of what they’d see on screen—when nothing undermining is shown about Jesus, especially in the believer-turnarounds of Clarence and Elijah (although the invulnerability of Barabbas, the water-walking of Clarence might be hard to accept as a total package in this story for the most-orthodox of monotheists). Overall, I found The Book of Clarence to be an odd, although generally-unique, experience with some intriguing comic aspects, but, ultimately, a more serious look at the time of Jesus than I’d expected; it’s not financially-cheap to watch (more on that in just a bit), so you probably need to think carefully about how intriguing it may sound; nevertheless, given that the last 2023 release I’m somehow determined to see, before posting in the next couple of weeks regarding last year’s Top 10 and this year’s Oscar predictions, is Poor Things(Yorgos Lanthimos)—not yet on streaming, not that near me in a theater—I did find … Clarence to be my most-intriguing-choice last week, agree that it's worth the price, and encourage you to consider it, although if you mostly need to"Look on the Bright Side of Life"while being marginally-sacrilegious, maybe you just need … The Life of Brian instead.
Bottom Line Final Comments:The Book of Clarence began its run in domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters, 2,010 of them, on January 12, 2024, is now down to just 190, with a gross so far of a mere $6.1 million (no international box-office), so, as it often the case with anything I’ve been reviewing in these COVID-19 times, your easiest-access is likelystreamingwhere you’ll find it available at Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Vudu, etc. for a $19.99 rental, not much of a savings over theatrical tickets unless there's a bargain-early-afternoon-matinee. While I’m encouraging you to consider either option (if for no other reason than to see such a large almost-all-Black-cast; although, if that appeals to you, I think you’ll find slightly better results with Oscar-nominated American Fiction [Cord Jefferson, 2023; review in our February 13, 2024 posting]), the CCAL just barely agrees with me as theRotten Tomatoes positive reviews are 68%and theMetacritic average score is 60%, soI’ll let a couple of better-known-voices-than-mine give you some insights.Alissa Wilkinson Alissa Wilkinsonof The New York Times says:“ 'The Book of Clarence' is a highly ambitious attempt at relatability, with an added reverence for the old-school ‘Ben-Hur’-era Hollywood biblical epics. […] Does it work? Sometimes! And it’s also sort of a mess. […] But what’s good about 'The Book of Clarence' is what so many movies lack: taking really, really big swings. There are fights with gladiators and a chariot race. But there’s flashy camerawork that quotes both music videos and old movies, with a lot of zooms and cuts and wipes and iris effects. [… If it] doesn’t totally work, its combination of the sacred and the irreverent is enchanting. It gets bogged down in its own mud, but it’s certainly shooting for the stars.”So she's easily paralleled with the CCAL majority.
Conversely,James Verniereof the Boston Herald snidely counters:“[…]all that I can say is, Did anybody read this before throwing money at it? […] ‘The Book of Clarence’ […] is a postmodern mess. Unfortunately, it is also going to become the rite of passage for a generation of children. But what it is? At times, it feels very strongly like a ‘Life of Brian’ spoof/alternate story of Jesus Christ, using a previous unknown as a Christ stand in. […] ‘The Book of Clarence’ is like a two-hour plus 'SNL' skit with a dance sequence that nobody bothered to edit (or just delete). […] By the time we get around to the Crucifixion, I was reminded that I had already seen ‘The Passion.’ ‘How long before we get a Broadway musical version of ‘The Book of Clarence?’ Not long enough.” While you’re deciding what to do about viewing … Clarence, though, you can indulge in my standard-wrapup-tactic of a Musical Metaphor, “The Last Supper” from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar(another non-standard-Biblical-interpretation of those long-ago-times of the only argued-about-Messiah today in the record album [1970], Broadway play [1971; I saw it NYC with Jeff Fenholt as Jesus, Carl Anderson as Judas, Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene], film [Norma Jewison, 1973; Ted Neely as Jesus in this version]) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJxKtOwgLdw, a song I’ve chosen because it addresses the satirical aspects of … Clarence—“Look at all my trials and tribulations / Sinking in a gentle pool of win / Don’t disturb me now; I can see the answers / Till ‘this evening’ is ‘this morning,’ life is fine / Always hoped that I’d be an apostle / Knew that I would make it if I tried / Then when we retire we can write the gospels / So they’ll still talk about us when we’ve died”—while also incorporating serious aspects of this current film in the clash between Jesus and Judas about what’s going to happen and why on Good Friday. If nothing else, maybe some exposure to any of this content will serve as points of interest if you celebrate aspects of Holy Week (Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday)on March 24-31 during this coming spring—or not, as you'll see fit.
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviewsfor our past posts*(scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list). Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like toLikeus on Facebook (yes?) please visitour Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us! Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at ourFacebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us at that site in order to do it (most FB procedures are still a perplexing mystery to us old farts).
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please
use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.
OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.
Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 6,544—a huge drop-off from the marvelous 40-50K of some recent months;never overestimate yourself! (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.) Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):
(I know I’ve seen this clever phrase somewhere, so my apologies to whomever I stole it from.)
Review and Comments by Ken Burke
Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone, with couples having a special time to share their love but even the non-coupled should know you’re (hopefully) loved too by relatives/friends/pets or whatever may bring joy to your life. For all, here's a song by Gordon Lightfoot about "the wherefore and the why."
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue[some may look nearpurple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise:“You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from"Garden Party"by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the same name)
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒Thefirst and last words will be noted with arrows andred.⇐OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens:Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffery Wright)—a clever naming of the main character by original novelist Percival Everett (Erasure, 2001), retained by screenwriter/director Jefferson—is a literature professor in L.A., struggling with his own novels receiving critical praise but poor sales, his latest rejected by publishers as not “Black enough”; when his agent, Arthur (John Ortiz), says the industry is only interested in examples of “Black fiction, Monk retorts he’s Black, his book is fiction, what else do they want? Obviously, not what he considers worthwhile-writing. He’s faced with complaints from colleagues, too, about hassling students who don’t agree with his pedagogy, so they suggest he take a leave of absence, attend a literary conference in his Boston hometown, then spend time with members of his family. He’s not too keen on the “leave” aspect of this trip but accepts the offer, goes to the conference where he finds his session is sparsely-attended while the crowd packs in for Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), who’s also an intellectual but has written a best-seller, We’s Lives in Da Ghetto, packed with Black stereotypes but adored by this White literary crowd, which astonishes and angers Monk. More bad news comes rapidly as Monk’s mother, Agnes (Leslie Uggams), shows some obvious signs of Alzheimer’s, but when he meets his divorced-doctor-sister, Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross), for drinks to discuss this she suddenly dies from a fatal heart attack.
Monk’s estranged brother, Cliff (Sterling K. Brown)—also divorced after his wife caught him with a man; plus, he’s a druggie—comes home for Lisa’s funeral, discusses with Monk the problems Cliff faced with their father about his gay tendencies (Dad shocked Mom too, committing suicide by gunshot with her devastated when finding his body—he may have had affairs as well). Monk investigates selling at least one of the family homes to pay for the huge costs of assisted-living for Agnes ($6,000 a month), a fate she has no interest in, though she lightens up considerably when Cliff visits her. Monk meets Coraline (Erika Alexander), a lawyer neighbor, with some mutual interests emerging. What’s really bothering Monk, though, is Golden’s success so he creates an absurd novel, My Pafology, using the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh, supposedly an escaped convict with extreme ghetto cred (satire really picks up at this point), has it sent around to publishers as a joke, is shocked when one of them offers a $750,000 advance with confidence it'll be a best-seller, followed by meeting with movie producer Wiley (Adam Brody), willing to pay $4 million for the rights.
Monk takes on the necessary gangsta personality on the phone with the publisher people, in person with Wiley, all of them easily buying the full load of this fiction. Monk then tries to derail the whole venture by demanding the novel’s title be changed to Fuck; however, this backfires when they agree, so he accepts all of the manufactured identity (with only Arthur knowing the true story) in order to get the necessary funds for Mom’s housing. Then, a further complication arises when Monk is asked to join the 5-person judging panel for the New England Book Association’s Literary Award (Golden’s on the panel too), with the 3 White members intrigued by Fuck, which has become a cultural event, with the FBI now determined to find “Leigh” ‘s whereabouts. During a break of the judging panel’s work, Monk and Golden talk privately where they agree about the worthlessness of Fuck (intentionally published on Juneteenth for maximum impact), but she becomes defensive when he notes problems with her book, which she says is based on considerable research; then the other 3 return, vote to give the award to “Leigh” ‘s book, which horrifies Monk, not sure if he should reveal the truth or not.
Meanwhile, Cliff supposedly left town, angry at Mom for her homophobic remarks, but actually moved into the beach house with a couple of guys, then is invited, along with Monk, to the wedding of the long-time family housekeeper, Lorraine (Myra Lucretia Taylor), even as Monk is on the outs with Coraline after an argument over her enjoying Fuck; Cliff encourages Monk to open up about his secret identity, which he seems about to do at the awards ceremony that suddenly cuts to black (no pun intended) as if the film’s finished.⇒However,we come back again to find Monk in conversation with Wiley, the implication being what we’ve been watching is a visualization of Monk’s script about his experiences, but Wiley wants a different ending. Monk suggests a version where he runs away from the ceremony to apologize to Coraline; Wiley says no, too romcom-ish, so the next idea (intended as a stereotypical throwaway) is that FBI agents show up at the ceremony and assume Monk is “Leigh” (not as a fake identity, but as a real escaped convict) so they shoot him dead. Monk’s shocked that Wiley accepts this (but, after all, he’s in the process of shooting Plantation Annihilation), which puts Monk's film into production as Monk and Cliff drive away from thestudio.⇐
So What?Although you’ll often find this film referred to a satire with strong implications of being a comedy throughout, it’s really more of a successful hybrid of solid satirical elements and serious family drama, maybe a sort of a blend of Bamboozled (Spike Lee, 2000) and Long Day’s Journey into Night(Sidney Lumet, 1962) without being as fully invested in the biting social (anti-racist) commentary of the former nor the devastating interpersonal clashes of the latter, so you get a bit of both allowing you to laugh at misplaced White-fawning over anything perceived as “authentically” Black, then effectively feeling the struggle this trying-to-be-sincere-man has in being genuinely-connected to those few who are closest to him, even as he hides aspects of himself which leads to his breakup with Coraline. The strong family interactions do pull us away from the satire about “woke” White liberals (which, I must admit, include me a lot of the time until I see where excesses of such ideologies can further the antagonism of our current social divides instead of helping reach the original goals of bringing a divided, violence-prone-society closer together with an acceptance of common visions) and their blind, guilt-driven-embrace of anything seeming to be “representative” of the cultures of so-called “Others,” African-Americans in this case. But, for me, the blend of satire and drama works well as it helps us better understand the background forces shaping Monk’s complicated life (a nice example is when he’s in a bookstore to see if they carry any of this works; they do, but to his dismay they’re shelved in the African-American Studies section just because of his identity, so he grabs a double armful to angrily relocate them to the more-general-area of Fiction because he doesn’t see himself as having written anything truly about Black identity into his books).
The awards community has embraced this film as it's won the People’s Choice Award at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival; it’s also included among the Top 10 Films of the Year by the American Film Institute Awards, along with many other wins, nominations, and pending possibilities from all across the U.S.A. (go here for a current, updated tally) with some of the most-notable being an Outstanding Directing – First-Time Feature Film nom from the Directors Guild of America; the Screen Actors Guild noms for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture (their Best Picture), Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for Wright, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for Brown; the Producers Guild nom for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures; Oscar noms for Best Picture, Actor (Wright), Supporting Actor (Brown), Adapted Screenplay (Jefferson), Original Score (Laura Karpman). Soon we’ll see how it plays out in these contests and so many others, with my high encouragement for you to see it before any of these awards finalists are announced. In truth, even if it doesn’t win much more than it already has, it’s still well worth your time for seeking it out.
Bottom Line Final Comments:American Fiction came to the domestic (U.S.-Canada) market on December 15, 2023 (still in 1,462 theaters, so you could probably find it somewhat nearby if you wanted to see it on the big screen), having taken in a quite modest $17.3 million so far ($17.8 million worldwide, international presence is exceedingly minimal), so I guess this content hasn’t been all that appealing to audiences (a real shame as it richly deserves to be seen) when compared to such fare as Wonka(Paul King, 2023) which has already piled up $205.1 million domestically, $587.8 million worldwide, although I doubt I’ll ever come in contact with it. The CCAL joins me (so wise of them) in recommending American Fiction, with theRotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 94%, theMetacritic average score at 81% (quite high for them, as only 3 that both they and I have reviewed so far this year come into the 80s range). So, if you’re COVID-adverse like me, you can easily turn tostreamingwhere you’ll find it available for $19.99 at Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Vudu, etc., though you must note that price is for purchase, not rental; I certainly don’t object to having it in my Roku-access-library for a future revisit, but that just might be a consideration for you.
Another consideration, of a positive nature is it features a largely all-Black cast, a situation you don’t get many options for in mainstream cinema (a recent [somewhat lesser for me] example is the new version of The Color Purple [Blitz Bazawule, 2023; review in our February 1, 2024 posting], but you won’t find much else so celebrate what you can when you can), with content that comments on ghetto stories and romcom indulgences without veering into either. In addition to my enthusiastic recommendation, with hopes some of those nominated awards might laud this unique, engaging film, I’ll just close with my usual Musical Metaphor, even if this one seems a little silly given the more serious aspects of American Fiction, but I’m connecting it to the satire aspects as I give you The Beatles with “Paperback Writer” (a 1966 hit single which later made its way onto compilation albums such as Hey Jude [1970], 1962-1966 [1973], and 1 [2000]) athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYvkICbTZIQ(an early form of music videos) with relevant lyrics such as“Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? […] And I need a job, so I want to be a paperback writer […] If you really like it, you can have the rights / It could make a million for you overnight,” so join this tongue-in-cheek-song with the insightful wit of a great film (sure to be among my Top 10 of 2023, a list I'll finalize soon after I see a couple more of the remaining contenders) and I think you’ll complete a winning combination.
SHORT TAKES
(Travis Kelce is now also a Super Bowl champ [for the third time, all with Kansas City];
Taylor Swift is “merely” a billionaire with a cluster of Grammy awards. Such cute kids!)
If you read this blog even on a casual basis you probably recognize immediately this posting’s a bit shorter than usual (don’t faint!) and it’s a day earlier than my usual Wednesday night/Thursday early morning marathon. That’s because some of my standard time commitments this week were (or are about to be) occupied with spending Valentine’s Day (and night) with my wonderful wife of 33 years, Nina Kindblad, and investing more hours than turned out to be necessary last Sunday watching Super Bowl LVIII where the Kansas City Chiefs beat my San Francisco 49ers (just a fan; I don’t own the team) 25-22 in overtime (worse yet,everyone in the world seems to have seen it). I’d like to find some excuse how K.C. managed to slip away with a victory, but given they’ve won this premiere football event 3 times in the last 5 years (twice against the 49ers), there seems to be no other choice but to congratulate the winners for yet another strong showing and leave you with one more song. I suppose I could play something from Taylor Swift’s catalogue, but given that I’m not familiar at all with her music (that ought to get me some responses, although I’m not so sure that any Swifties read this blog) I’ll just go with “Kansas City” from Wilbert Harrison (written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952, recorded by many from Little Richard to The Beatles, a hit for Harrison in 1959, whichyou might be able to get on this albumif it becomes available) athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah0gn5-M2cA(which cuts off just before the end so here’s another version with an introduction from long-ago-teen-influencer-Dick Clark), although I don’t need any“crazy little women” (I’ve already got one [just kidding, Sweetheart!]), but a bottle of “Kansas City wine” might be nice (I’m sure the Chiefs have had some by now; the 49ers need the harder stuff as they dream about “next year”).
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
Just one option: (1)Complete list of Directors Guild of America 2024 awards(Christopher Nolan takes Theatrical Feature Film for Oppenheimer [review in our August 17, 2023 posting], Celine Song wins First-Time Theatrical Feature Film for her Past Lives [review in our August 31, 2023 posting]).
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviewsfor our past posts*(scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list). Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like toLikeus on Facebook (yes?) please visitour Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us! Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at ourFacebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us at that site in order to do it (most FB procedures are still a perplexing mystery to us old farts).
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Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 6,544—a huge drop-off from the marvelous 40-50K of some recent months;never overestimate yourself! (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.) Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):
