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Reviews
American Fiction (2023)
Two movies in one. One is great, the other is ok.
The movie American Fiction starts off with a bang of a scene that makes you think, "Oh. This is going to be amazing." From beginning to end, there are a number of sharp, brilliant, stingingly funny scenes. But they're interspersed between what feels like another movie - a bittersweet yet heartwarming family drama. Two movies with the same characters running along a parallel story arc that occasionally intersect. On more than one occasion I found myself asking, wait, which movie am I watching?
First, there is the movie as described in the IMDB synopsis: "Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist who's fed up with the establishment profiting from "Black" entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write his own outlandish "Black" book--that propels him into the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain."
This movie is awesome. But it only shows up on occasion as what sometimes feels like a sub-plot of the other movie.
The other movie also stars Jeffrey Wright as Monk, same frustrated, emotionally disconnected, lost character. He takes a highly-encouraged leave of absence from his university teaching job and goes and reconnects with his emotionally damaged and broken yet still loving family. The great cast includes Tracee Ellis Ross as his accomplished, primary-bearer-of-responsibility sister; Sterling K. Brown as his middle-aged, recently-heterosexually-divorced, now out-gay-and-on-the-prowl brother; and, best of all, the legendary Leslie Uggams as his rapidly-on-the-decline-but-won't-acknowledge-it mother. Monk gradually, reluctantly takes more and more responsibility to care for his mother and be an active brother, accomplishing some middle age growing up in the process. It's a very nice, warm, if not particularly inspiring movie. It serves as the narrative background for the first movie.
The first movie is also a kind of journey of maturity, responsibility and self-discovery, along with being a biting and very funny satire. It's way more interesting and fun. Unfortunately, we don't get to spend a lot of time there. It's too bad, because each time it reappeared I thought, now THIS is the movie that I want to see. The effect is a feeling of story-drive interruptus. The first movie brings a level of building tension that wets your appetite with anticipation (OMG, what's going to happen next? I can't look but want to look!). And then it drops that tension and momentum when we move back to what is actually the main story line with him and his family. I kept feeling like, no wait, don't go back to the family movie, stay with this one!
The good thing is that it comes back around to the first movie at the end with a climax scene that is sharp, cynical and hilarious.
Wonka (2023)
It's fine. Not bad fine. Good fine. But fine.
Wonka was fine. I mean, it was good. I expected to be annoyed, and I wasn't in the slightest. It's well written, well directed, very good acting all around, uniformly by everyone. The songs are clever. Very appealing characters and a solidly written story. Timothée Chalamet is super charming as Willy Wonka, breezy and fun. I enjoyed Calah Lane as Noodle. She really grounds the whole movie with a believable combination of weary cynicism, unexpected wonder and hope. Olivia Coleman is a great villain, had a lot of fun. Keegan Michael Key, Matt Lucas, I mean, the entire cast is solid.
Part of the problem is that, despite the seeming high stakes of the story, not very much seemed at stake. Willy Wonka is so breezy and so easily inventive, there's never any doubt that he's going to be ok. In fact, because it's a prequel, it's guaranteed he's going to be ok because he's destined to build that chocolate factory, after all. In the original, it was Charlie who had everything at stake, and you felt it. In this one, it should have been Noodle. But as she is the secondary character, her story can't be the central, driving one, even though hers is the story, as written, with the most at stake. In the context of this movie, however, her story is too tied to his for it to ever feel like the outcome of her story was in doubt.
I left feeling, well, that was nice. Lots of good stuff. Solid. But Willy Wonka should be magic. And for whatever reason, the magic and wonder or giddy fun didn't happen for me. I liked it WAY better than Tim Burton's version, which I hated. But this chocolately treat, while well made and tastey, failed to lift me off my feet.
Down Low (2023)
Fun at first but then WTF?
Enjoyed the first half of this. A lot of fun, great chemistry, fun performances. Zachary Quinto's turn as a sexually repressed guy goes a little stale. Lukas Gage's character starts to feel a little one-note as well. Judith Light is wonderful as always. And a fun cameo by Simon Rex. Then it takes a darker turn that suddenly feels a lot less funny, if not disturbing. The movie had created a nice reality bubble that was fun to experience. Until, damn, it gets dark. Then suddenly we're out of that bubble into a world that features Audra McDonald, whose fierce realness feels completely at odds with the rest of the movie. I was totally willing to suspend disbelief and go along for the ride for the first half, but it asked too much at the end. From laughter to what the f-- in 90 minutes. Can't really recommend.