Movie Review: American Fiction

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A-

A brilliant dramady.

Mixing over the top satire with heartfelt family drama, is no easy feat. It is even more impressive how this movie does this seemingly effortlessly. This is really a film that will make you laugh out loud, while moving something inside you.

The premise of the movie is truly wonderful. A black author writes many books that make no money. When he is criticized for his books not being "black" enough and when a very stereotypical "black" book becomes a major hit, angry he writes as a joke a book featuring every black stereotype and sends it to publishers as a joke. However, it turns out to be a major success and makes him tons of money. This very premise shows satire at its best. It takes a true comment on our society and takes it to an extreme. Sometimes satire can end up feeling more clever than actually funny. However, that is not the case here. The humor is not only very clever but laugh out loud funny. I laughed much more often and harder than I thought I would going in. The whole audience was laughing out loud with me. This movie is also not afraid to take risks with its humor. It has no problem making us laugh, while feeling uncomfortable at the same time. 

Yet this movie is just as much of a character study and a family drama as it is a comedy. Our main character is a complex and fascinating character. While he is easy to relate to him, he is a very flawed character. The film never plays down his flaws but presents them in ways that can sometimes make him seem unlikable. Yet this never goes too far to the point where we ever completely cease to like him. This is because just as much as his flaws are easy to see, he also very much has his good qualities to him. Because of this, he comes off as a true three-dimensional character. He feels completely like a real person and over the course of the movie, we get to know him just as well as we know ourselves. This makes the family drama much more effective. The family drama, like the comedy, has no problem making its audience feel uncomfortable at times. Many of these more dramatic scenes are truly heartbreaking. We grow to not only care about our main character but his family as well. All of our main character's family members (as well as his girlfriend) also are very well-rounded characters that feel completely real to us. What is even more incredible is that this drama, not only doesn't get in the way of the over-the-top comedy, but it also perfectly complements it. 

This is simply a wonderful movie.