Movie Review - American Fiction

Director: Cord Jefferson
Genre: Drama/ Comedy
Runtime: 117 minutes
Year: 2024
Starring: Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. Brown, Issa Rae, Keith David, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Erika Alexander, Adam Brody, John Ortiz, Raymond Anthony Thomas
 
Description: A novelist (Jeffrey Wright) who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from Black entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of the hypocrisy and madness he claims to disdain.

Review: In “American Fiction”, a struggling writer is offered a big movie deal for his purposely steretype-filled, accidentally successful novel Fuck. The movie applies critique of the literary world from Percival Everett’s 2001 satirical novel “Erasure” to today’s film world.

When author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison hears from his agent that his books ‘aren’t black enough to sell’, he writes a novel filled with black stereotype out of frustration. He want the book to hold a mirror up to the literary world, about their worship of real and raw stories about the struggles of black people. He calls the book Fuck, pretends it was written by a fugitive criminal and thinks that makes it unpublishable. Of course, it becomes a raging success. He gets a 750 thousand advance and a movie deal.

Debuting director Cord Jefferson based the screenplay of “American Fiction” on the 2001 satirical novel “Erasure”. The criticism of the literary circuit from “Erasure” clearly dates back to the turn of the century. “American Fiction” shifts the focus to a critique of Hollywood. The actual focus is of course Ellison’s personal life.

Ellison is the sole writer in a family of doctors. They own a beach house and have a live-in help. When h is fired as a literature professor at a university in California, de decides to visit his family in Boston. He dislikes them. His brother and sister have always resented him for being his father’s darling. What follows is a personal story.  

I absolutely loved “American Fiction”. An underdog at the Oscars of 2024, that will most likely not win a single award, but really deserves a ton of praise. Not only the movie and its story, but also for actors Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown. Go watch this film, it’s streaming on Amazon Prime.

Rating: 5/ 5

Movie Review - The Kid Detective

Director: Evan Morgan
Genre: Comedy/ Drama/ Crime
Runtime: 100 minutes
Year: 2021
Starring: Adam Brody, Kaitlyn Chalmers-Rizzato, Sophie Nélisse, Kaleb Horn, Wendy Crewson, Jonathan Whittaker, Brent Skagford, Steve Cagne, Giovanna Moore, Jesse Noah Gruman, Olivia Williams

Description: A once-celebrated kid detective (Adam Brody), now 32, continues to solve the same trivial mysteries between hangovers and bouts of self-pity. Until a naïve client (Sophie Nélisse) brings him his first ‘adult’ case, to find out who brutally murdered her boyfriend.

Review: As a kid, Abe Applebaum was a widely loved child detective. He solved little mysteries for the residents of the town of Willowbrook, where he was considered a local hero. However, his success abruptly ended when his close friend Gracie Gulliver disappeared. Despite his investigation, Gracie remained without a trace, which quickly killed Abe’s reputation.
Years pass, but the now 32-year-old Abe is still a detective. However, no one seems to trust him as a serious investigator. Abe therefore prefers to spend his days drinking and playing videogames, irritating everyone around him. When high-school student Caroline approaches him, everything changes. She wants to hire Abe to investigate the murder on her boyfriend. Despite the fact that Caroline can’t pay him, Abe takes the case.  
“The Kid Detective” is an ironic, yet cheerful crime comedy. The script is filled with witty dialogue and it tells a solid detective story. Evan Morgan’s directorial debut functions not only as a blend between comedy and crime, but at the same time as an homage to film-noir. Although the atmosphere of this film us largely upbeat, Morgan also manages to bring serious subjects to the fore. In doing so, he succeeds amazingly well.  
The biggest asset of “The Kid Detective” is Adam Brody, who plays Abe. He is your typical anti-hero. Brody gets a chance to prove himself as a serious actor here. His character is well-developed, humorous, but also deeply tragic at times. Abe is someone trapped in his younger self, someone who has never taken the step to move on. You hope he achieves his dream, but you also hope he finally takes responsibility.
“The Kid Detective” is one of those hidden gems that can be seen on Netflix right now.

Rating: 4/ 5

10s Movie Review - Ready or Not

Director: Matt Bettinello-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Genre: Thriller/ Horror/ Comedy
Runtime: 95 minutes
Year: 2019
Starring: Samara Weaving, Mark O’Brien, Adam Brody, Henry Czerny, Andie MacDowell

Description: A bride’s (Samara Weaving) wedding night takes a sinister turn when her eccentric new in-laws force her to take part in a terrifying game.

Review: “Ready or Not” is entirely set on and around the estate of a ealthy family that owns its fortune in large part to the production of board games. Young Grace will know this too, because as soon as she wants to start the wedding night with her new husband Alex, a rather special tradition intervenes. It prescribes that someone who marries into this family has to play a randomly chosen game on the wedding night with the other family members. In Grace’s case this turns out to be hide-and-seek. She is told beforehand that participating is more important than winning, but in this game losing turns out to not be an option either. There is a rather mature variant being played: Grace is the only one who has to hide, after which the whole in-law family tries to find her… and finish her off.
An explanation for this thirst of blood lies in the conviction of the family members that they are cursed and will die if they do not catch their prey before sunrise. Well, as if that initial premise wasn’t bizarre enough. But somewhere the film can hardly be judged on this utterly idiotic premise, because in its banality it is so wonderfully simple. And I did love this concept. The film doesn’t pretend to be high art for a moment (although the set design does look like a living piece of art), so let’s not try to make it that way.
The fact that the viewer remains in limbo right up to the last scene is the main reason the film works.
Samara Weaving is without a doubt the best thing about “Ready or Not”. Fairy unknown with the bigger audience, Weaving does a fine job in carrying this film and her character is fantastic. She had to undergo a lot of and we see her character develop withing the runtime of the film. With mentioning character development, there is also the downside of the film. Most of the characters don’t have depth and their motives are a vague.
I always like it when something goes against your expectations. But I think everyone was pleasantly surprised by “Ready or Not”. I love a good thriller/ horror film that is combined with some good laughs. It’s a definite fun time and an original premise. No masterpiece by all means, but super fun for the horror fans among us.

Rating: 3,5 / 5

10s Movie Review - Scream 4

Director: Wes Craven
Genre: Horror/ Thriller
Runtime: 111 minutes
Year: 2011
Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin, Marley Shelton, Mary McDonnell, Adam Brody, Anthony Anderson, Alison Brie

Description: Ten years have passed, and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who has put herself back together thanks in part to her writing, is visited by the Ghostface Killer.

Review: Wes Craven couldn’t take all the endless remakes of his own classics, like “House of Wax”, “The Hills Have Eyes” and “Last House on the Left”. Craven wanted to make a fourth installment, only if Kevin Williamson would write the script.
Sidney has finally put her past behind her by writing a book. She visits Woodsboro to promote the book. But with her return, a killer also strikes. With ‘oldies’ Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox as the only surviving characters, there is room for a bunch of new ones. There is hardly any character development and it’s predictable who will make it to the end and who will die before the end credits role.
The “Scream” movies are good because they don’t take themselves very seriously. The opening sequence of “Scream 4” is the perfect example. Craven and Williamson have some new tricks up their sleeves, but most of it is still very unoriginal. And the ending is, like “Scream 3”, a bit far-fetched and not satisfying at all.
All the movies in this series are very entertaining, but I really hope this is the end of it.

Rating: 2/ 5

Movie Reviews - Shazam!

Director: David F. Sandberg
Genre: Action/ Adventure/ Comedy
Runtime: 123 minutes
Year: 2019
Starring: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Adam Brody, Djimon Hounsou, Marta Milans, Cooper Andrews

Description: We all have a superhero inside us, it takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s (Asher Angel_ case by shouting out one word – SHAZAM – this streetwise fourteen-year-old foster kid can turn into the grown-up superhero Shazam (Zachary Levi).

Review: “Shazam!” is not (yet) a part of a bigger film universe. Like Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) and Arthur Curry (Aquaman), teenager Billy Batson gets his own origin story. Off course there are lots of easter eggs and a lot of DC name dropping. But “Shazam!” mostly goes his own way. And it’s so different from the dark Snyder films.
They didn’t worry about making the magic lightning suite look realistic or create an ideal image of a superhero. “Shazam!” is a comedy, sometimes an even heartwarming family film. It had to be: a magic staff, magical words, a clumsy hero and a silly name. it wouldn’t have worked as a dark and gritty story. But with comedy and a splash of satire, it does work. Very well actually. The starting point is great: what to do when, as a teenager, all of a sudden you have the same powers as Superman? Exactly, you are going to try it all out. Jumping over buildings, by alcohol, smash things and trying to get rich. It becomes a delightful and recognizable child fantasy, where sidekick Freddy Freeman provides sassy comments. And Zachary Levi is the perfect choice to play the superhero.
Mark Strong plays Thaddeus Sivana, the villain. His name isn’t special, his look doesn’t look impressive and he has no epic backstory. But it does work surprisingly well, because he actually is a serious threat to Billy Batson.
“Shazam!” is very aware of itself and there are many references to other movies in the genre and even to “Big”, where a teenager also all of a sudden wakes up in an adult man’s body. And some things look really silly. But because of the friendly tone of the film, lead actor Zachary Levi and his dynamic with Jack Dylan Grazer, it’s a great superhero film.
“Shazam!” is lighter than “Wonder Woman”, more focused than “Aquaman” and very true to the comics. With that, it’s actually one of the better DC films.

Rating: 4/ 5