AMERICAN FICTION is Cord Jefferson's hilarious directorial debut, which confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. 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 an outlandish “Black” book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.



Looks interesting.. feels straight out of Hollywood Shuffle.

Premise sounds like a literary version of Bamboozled.

When TIFF unveiled their full list this year, there were two pictures that immediately went to the top of my list: this and that Nicolas Cage dream picture. Naturally they both sold out insanely fast and I couldn’t get tickets, and then both became the most talked-about and well-reviewed films from the fest this year. I think this one even won the big audience award or whatever it’s called. It does seem promising.

This is likely to be the mystery movie tonight at the theatre chains that are doing those. There are also some sneak preview screenings scheduled for 12/2, 12/6, and 12/9 at some theatres.

Hey, thanks for the heads-up! Will give it a shot tonight. Crossing fingers.

So this was indeed the "AMC Screen Unseen" movie last night. There were about 25 people in attendance, and 2 walkouts right as the film started. Odd, considering American Fiction is considered an awards contender.

Anyway, this is a satire with a VERY strong and necessary message about the current state of publishing--namely, the almost hysterical focus on diversity and "underrepresented voices," often at the expense of, you know, good writing. The fact that this is coming from a black director is most excellent, and Jeffrey Wright's performance is top-notch. There are many hilarious sequences involving marketing folks falling over themselves at the prospect of the "ghetto trash" connecting with the white-guilt public, even though the writing resorts to the worst kinds of offensive stereotypes.

Unfortunately, this great satirical content is heavily leavened by a very bland main plot involving Wright's family drama.

A stronger focus on the satire, hitting it even harder and making it the main thrust of the film, would have been a better approach in my opinion.

Solid B.

Has anyone here seen this movie? It’s only playing in 40 theaters total nationwide.

It’s playing in 2 theaters near me. But they’re not exactly convenient to go to. About 25 miles away each one way.

It’s coming out Friday to my local theater, I plan to see it on the weekend. It’s also playing at two other theaters nearby.

The wide release is the 12th.

Can you post where you got that info? I am trying to convince someone that this movie wasn't buried on purpose.

Dumb question but is that a tweet or a thread? I went to both and can't find it because those fucking sites don't put their post in order by date. Just random bullshit.

I have no idea why they make this shit so hard? Do you have the link?

Sorry.

It’s a targeted sponsored ad on Facebook. Not sure if this will work to the specific ad I see

• https://www.facebook.com/share/v/ywc...ibextid=WC7FNe
• https://www.facebook.com/share/v/rig...ibextid=WC7FNe

Buried on purpose? Hard to do with a film that'll probably get a Best Picture nom.

It’s now currently at three theaters near me. My friend saw a screener and liked it. That is the latest news on this elusive movie.

Saw that it's finally available in my area tomorrow- Going tomorrow @ 10:40am- love those matinee hardly anyone in the theatre screenings

This was great, one of the best of the year.

I caught a late matinee tonight and thought this was great. Jeffrey Wright was hilarious and really liked all the supporting players in this. A good mix of comedy and satire about racial stereotypes and the publishing industry.

As I was walking out, some studio reps were asking if we wanted to fill out a survey about the movie. So I went ahead and did it and looks like I was added to the mailing lists for early trailer reviews and opportunities to earn Amazon credit by filling out some surveys.

But yeah, I highly recommend this movie. It's not a big splashy movie, but it was so entertaining. I think this goes into my Best of list.

Interesting, I had the opposite reaction, that the family story was the most engaging, funny, and insightful part of the movie, and the publishing "satire" was mostly shallow and cartoonish.

The trailers are kind of misleading, in that the fake author story is maybe a fourth of the movie. Honestly, that suited me fine, because it allowed me to go into the movie very blind, and I got the experience of enjoying stuff I wasn't expecting.

Overall, very enjoyable.

Biggest headscratcher of a line is Brett Easton Ellis being included on a list of authors known for writing about "the downtrodden". Have I missed some books of his?

A focus of the satire and the character’s dilemma is the fact that he isn't “allowed” tell a story without making reference to being black. So the overall script itself points that out with the fact that all his family stuff was unrelated to any of that and was still compelling/universal, alongside the racial components of the author storyline.

I saw this tonight and thought it was great. I felt like it kind of wandered between stories and that some might not have been necessary but i still enjoyed it.

Fantastic. Saw it in a screening room. Loved it.

sterling K Brown is fantastic.

lots of heart. Emotion. Humour.

The award top 10 judging scene is fantastic. Especially the breakdown of the votes.

yeah that part was great. I laughed out loud at it.

This movie was FUCKing awesome. I had no idea what it was about and it seemed billed as a comedy, but I felt so much emotion during various scenes throughout. Wright could never do wrong in my book and I wish he was front and center more often. Rather than playing second fiddle in many of his movies. But, he shined so bright. The whole cast was fantastic. Uggams brought a lot of the heart and spewed the funniest line to Coraline by saying, I’m glad you’re not white and her reply was me too. Even Brown who I usually don’t like for unknown reasons was great. Just great stuff and definitely a top 5 movie for me last year.