review archive
Jeffrey Wright. © 2023/2024 Amazon MGM Studios, Orion Pictures, MRC Film, T-Street Productions, Almost Infinite, 3 Arts Entertainment.
Directed by Cord Jefferson. VFA Nominee - 4 VFAs Including "Best Motion Picture"
For Your Consideration (FYC) Screener
Create The Message By Being The Message Itself People praise a generational piece that not only speaks to them personally but it has a meaningful impact that will be looked upon for generations. Well, Monk has a problem with that. The problem is that those generational pieces are being converted into stereotypes with no meaningful message behind them. It is just absurdity, lazy, and potentially offensive. However, it is not all about that. In Cord Jefferson's directorial debut film, he explores how the media has changed the interpretation of black culture but also criticizes the modern entertainment today that the general public is consuming. It is a mix of comedy and drama that not only gets its point across but opens it up for interpretation. Let's follow Monk's literary adventure of the hypocrisy of Black entertainment. Story: Monk is a frustrated novelist who's fed up with the establishment that profits from Black entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, he uses a pen name to write an outlandish Black book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain. One of the few films this year including American Fiction has not only critiqued the media system and made fun of it, but also gives possible answers to fix those issues. Whether it is politics, culture, or race, there is a solution to every problem but you will need to find the root of the problem in order to fix it and critique it to arrive at that solution. Jefferson does that by letting the audience be in the shoes of Monk (Jeffrey Wright) and see how today's media has shifted towards stereotypical issues that we see portrayed in the media instead of smart and thoughtful media literature in film, books, news, music, and more. By making his themes work through the eyes of Monk, Jefferson uses comedy and satire to critique the modern media while using family drama as the possible solution to his point. The mixture of those elements in its screenplay and direction works very well alongside its cast. The satirical comedy of the stereotypes being used was hilarious and smartly written. The dark comedy in certain scenes with drama was placed intentionally to get the point across but the scene still allows that heavy drama to be at the main forefront. For the comedic scenes alone, they were funny and well-executed. There were a lot of memorable scenes from this film and I laughed constantly throughout this film which made me appreciate the comedy being used with the issues that the film is tackling. There are interesting ambitious sequences that take the comedy in a whole new direction and it works for this type of story. Especially for the protagonist who is a book writer. With Jefferson's screenplay, he balances out the drama and comedy by giving depth to his characters while still keeping the story engaging and funny. While the tone may be inconsistent, the screenplay manages to bring new ideas that can elevate the comedy and lay out the drama in a smart way. Monk's situation with his new book and his family issues raises the stakes and it allows Monk to make difficult decisions for his career and his family. Monk has an interesting relationship with his family and friends which creates more problems with Monk. Jefferson allows some breather between the comedy with the family drama that Monk is dealing with while creating his new book. Plus, the screenplay makes Monk's journey a bit more difficult when he finds a new relationship which can halt his book development. The characters from Monk's family and friends are hilarious and they add to the satire and family drama that Jefferson is aiming for. Every person in Monk's personal family adds more stress to his work but it allows Monk's character to find that spark for his main book that he's creating. Yet, the subplot with his family gets more complex by the third act and it changes the behavior of Monk. From the supporting cast of characters, Cliff, played by Sterling K. Brown, gives a hilarious and human performance which gives more depth to the subplot of the family drama. The chemistry between Monk and Cliff is wonderful and there are flaws within their sibling relationship that add weight to the drama and comedy as well. Even though Issa Rae's character Sintara is barely in the film, her character symbolizes modern young artists in a good and bad way which helps Jefferson's social commentary of the film. Yet, her character allows her to criticize Monk's first thought of her work which later reveals to be a completely different book than he expected. The film not only allows Monk to re-evaluate if his new book is worthy or not but also criticizes his own work and looks at the outer bubble. It brings many questions to the table but Monk still needs to finish his initial journey that he started with his new book. After all, he wants to prove that today's audience doesn't want to read complex stories anymore. They just want to read easy books that have stereotypes that prevent real critical thinking. By the end of the film, I started to realize that this film is a bit of a wake-up call to this new "media" we are consuming and how this type of media is being slipped into the air without any second looks. That is where the main social commentary of the film comes into play.
Through the social commentary of American Fiction, it is ultimately a critique of the modern "media" that audiences have been consuming for the past two decades or so. Hollywood is turning to ideas that they think are relatable to the world and the people they are targeting. Plus, the representation they are aiming at is not clicking there yet for audiences. Jefferson clearly criticizes and satirizes the book and film companies for marketing stereotypical "black" books and films. We get to see this through Sintara's book called "We's Lives In Da Ghetto" which from the title, uses stereotypes of black American culture. We get to see this multiple times in how Jefferson thinks that today's media is portraying the Black community with racial stereotypes through books and thinking it is smart and authentic. In reality, it is not in certain degrees. Even by the ultimate climax of the film which has a weird ending that makes his social commentary come all together. From the portrayal of the media, to how not just Black Americans are being portrayed, but also other ethnicities and races are being portrayed now in the media is just a satirization for Jefferson to point out. Even with the satire being a major part, it is also another way to point out the issues in America and how Americans are thinking differently about politics and the media today. Jefferson wants to point out that there are not many complex, academic, or smart books and films out there that criticize or bring light to important subjects. By explaining this issue, he uses his film by not just satirizing it and making it easier to understand, but add complexity and depth to the satirization itself. There is so much to explain about the social commentary and satire of this film but to wrap this section off, Jefferson's satire of the publishing industry is, unfortunately, a reality where executives think audiences want this or that. But the creators really want their audiences to delve into authentic stories and start real conversations about the many ongoing issues in people's personal lives, in America, or the world.
On the technical side of the film, it is a well-produced film based on the cast, locations, and filmmaking behind it. The cinematography is solid, the production design is good, and the music is surprisingly relaxing for the most part. Nothing too crazy in terms of production scale until the final ten minutes of the film which was the most shocking part of the film. Plus, those ten minutes sell on the satire that Jefferson was commentating on throughout this story. Even with its brilliant satire and smart script, the film falls short on certain subplots within the family drama and the pacing of the film itself. While I love the family drama that helps bring depth to Monk's character, the structure and pacing of that subplot were a bit messy. There were certain beats that didn't quite work in the right moments and with the editing of the film, it makes the subplot a bit harder to grasp emotionally. A certain writing decision that happened in the first thirty minutes of the film did not work for me and it should have been waited right in the second act. It felt melodramatic sometimes within certain scenes of the family drama and there were more subplots in the film where it barely had any development or it was too quick. The editing could have been tighter while still having those slow and thoughtful moments that Jefferson is communicating. There were not any weird editing decisions but the pacing overall felt off in certain bits which ruined the overall flow of the film. Finally, the ending can be a bit divisive for some audiences but it worked for me in what Jefferson was communicating with its satire. Yet, by the end of the film, I was still profound about the complexity of the story and depth of Jefferson's film with its characters and drama that Monk faced throughout his literary journey. Cord Jefferson made a film that not only speaks to today's media representation and how publishers are aiming for the wrong message, but also gives us a deeper look into the author's journey and the blockade of issues that many authors are facing within each media field from books to films. Even beyond its satire, it is a personal journey on how we face our many issues while we create art for others. It is a smart and bold screenplay with fantastic performances including Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown. Honestly, one of the smartest films of this year and it should be analyzed more in what it is critiquing while looking for the answers that Jefferson is providing us through his film. It is a fantastic directorial debut from Cord Jefferson.
Now Playing Only in Theaters!
Vizeit Score: "A-"
(Share this review with your film friends and on social media! Thank you for continuing supporting my indie cinema website.)
Copyright © 2024 Vizeit Reviews / Vizeit Studios. All Rights Reserved. Review Written By: Everardo Garcia Jr. Editor In-Chief/Owner of Vizeit Reviews | (Chicago Indie Critics Member [CIC])
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
Copyright © 2024 Vizeit Reviews. All Rights Reserved. |