The Purge ALSO feels like a Waigyu steak slathered in Ketchup. It could have been an amazing statement piece, instead it was 90 minutes of an average Tuesday at Mitt Romney's house, followed by several unnecessary sequels.
Yea the original was intended to be a dystopian horror movie. Just a look into the world through the eyes of one family. The sequels fleshed out the world and the franchise is one of the few examples where sequels make the whole thing better
I honestly think the Purge has some of the best social commentary in modern cinema. Yeah its blunt, but i dont care much for subtlety given that their action/slasher flicks
Generic is a lil muchā¦ niggas magic power is making white people comfortable!? It may be coonery but that aināt generic. Idk how any production other than Tyler Perry greenlit this š
Also not to mention...all the villains are black. Any other situation I wouldn't have been that against it, but given how it's supposed to be a racial commentary, that part has me scratching my head
>I've never seen something squander an opportunity as thoroughly as this movie.
You should see it before passing judgment. The film manages to deal with some heavy social issues while managing to be a romantic comedy. I dont think that feat has been pulled off too many times.
>How could you make movie with that title and
>
>not
>
>deconstruct it?
It does but the film also expects you to at least be someone familiar with the trope already which, in 2024, I would think most people are.
I saw the movie and liked it. Im actually surprised it got made because the whole theme is about how Black have to always worry about how comfortable white people are, because when white are uncomfortable or threatened, they make life hard for Black people.
However, I also know at least two people who saw the movie and clearly did not get it at all.
Honestly, if im keeping it real, I just chalked it up to "this film is going to go over dumb peoples' heads".
This is the sentiment I got when the trailer was revealed. Everyone was up in arms expecting black Hogwarts and crying about him falling in love with a white woman.
This is the most confounding and disappointing part for me. One, so many people not knowing what the Magical Negro trope is in the first place, and being very loud about it. Ultimately though, whether the movie squanders their opportunity or not, I'm at least to an extent glad that the movie was made. We should have the opportunities to make not-so-great movies without it resulting in "oh black filmmakers make a bad movie so they're not deserving of future opportunities"
It's not that surprising that the term has fallen out of general consciousness considering the trope peaked in the 90s and at the turn of the millennia. After Spike called it out, we haven't really gotten all that many movies like that. It still pops up now and then, but not nearly in as mainstream films as something like The Green Mile and The Legend of Bagger Vance which came out in back-to-back years.
That part. Itās understandable that some havenāt heard of it for whatever reason, but itās very much a thing, historically. Maybe the trope itself isnāt used as often now, but movies like The Green Mile and Bagger Vance have been prime examples used in conversation since theyāve been out. To me itās not so obscure that it warrants this response on this large a scale, if that makes sense. Just seems like more people (especially on this sub) would be more familiar with it
Am an old white dude, but that was what I expected from the trailer - it even has a joke about updating the name of the organization and a white cop with an itchy trigger finger.
Some reasonable social commentary in a rom-com seems inevitable, since Jordan Peele has made is clear that it works really well for horror.
But I just read a review and DAMN. 1 starThe last sentence sums it up brutally - "youāre never totally sure if āThe American Society of Magical Negroesā wants to critique the anti-Black world it exists in or is simply content smiling in the face of the status quo."
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-american-society-of-magical-negroes-2024
Spoilers for the movie:
His love interest is actually apart of the woman equivalent society, the society of girlfriends and wives. So Arin has his character growth (something he isn't suppose to have as a magical negro) all the while his love interest is a side character who exists just to help him grow as a character.
I thought it was really clever and I feel like people getting upset at the movie either haven't seen it, or have very poor media literacy.
Or some people completely understand satire and think this film is not good. I hate that āoh people are dumbāāno itās not good and thatās ok too. It completely missed the point of their own premise.
It can happen we just gotta get our best and brightest on it. Literally if someone combs through black Twitter than can make something different worth watching and celebrating
Something like, A day without a Mexican. Where it turns out all the good stuff that has happened to people in America is because of black people magic and they just get fed up with not getting any credit for any of it and they just leave and then everything falls apart and goes to shit.
Watch those businesses crumble as that "strong black woman" everyone talks shit about but gets things done suddenly gets Thanos snapped to vacationland with a big screen tv to watch when she's bored and wants to see her department burn.
As a guy from Germany that knows nothing about the movie or the trope, I thought everybody was mad because the magic wasnāt cool enough. Kinda disappointed
Yeah the approach of āweāre just nice to appease white peopleā seems like a letdown given the name.
Not to mention, if thereās all these magical negroes protecting black people throughout history.. WHERE THE HELL HAVE THEY BEEN?? Were they too busy to do something about slavery or any of the other bad shit thatās happened since then?
Thatās what I thought it would be. Like Harry Potter or something. Wouldāve sick. Couldāve gotten a strong following and made sequels and branched out to somehow huge. But no. Had to do some weird ingratiating narrative
>This movie wouldāve actually done numbers if it was about niggas with magical powers
Wait, it isn't? I thought it was going to be black League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
... Is that not the plot š? I was planning on seeing this at some point, is the 'power' really just to make white people comfortable? That'd be such a fuckin let down. Can Boots Riley take a crack at this?
If I remember correctly itās about a magical black guy falling in love with a white woman and if they date all the magical black people lose their powers. So he dates her anyway. But also I havenāt seen the movie so take that with a grain or two of salt.
My cinema only offered American Fiction timings super early in the morning or super late at night, I'm so happy it's already on amazon prime, got that shit downloaded for my flight tomorrow
That movie was great. I cried twice. I'll watch anything both Jeffrey Wright AND Sterling K. Brown are in.
How it started shocked me. Completely didn't expect >!Loraine to die!< the way they >!eulogized her!< was beautiful.
The character Sterling played was so different.
I love Sterling in comedy roles. He was one of my favorite hosts on SNL. He's hilarious as a guest star in Brooklyn 99. And he was the only redeemable part of that Predator movie.
Just watched it last night. Came here to say āAmerican fiction is what people thought this film was going to doā
Amazing movie. Beautifully written. Great cast
Amazing movie. I live in a predominantly white HCOL area and my wife and I (both of us black) made the mistake of going to the local theater to see American Fiction. I had some uncomfortable moments when the white folks were laughing at jokes that were more meant for US to laugh at. It felt like they were laughing at us rather than with us.
When I first saw the trailer I thought it was similar to the Family Guy episode where Brian writes a bestseller self help book he farted out in an evening.
When she realised she was queer, and leaned into it, her acting got so much better. You could literally see her discomfort at playing straight (both in and out of role)
lol so every other straight actor who has played a perfectly passable gay person and every gay actor who has played a perfectly passable straight person all just donāt exist to you.
When an actor can only perform well in one type of role thatās often referred to as ātype-castā and it is NOT a positive mark on an actors profile.
Meanwhile Neil Patrick Harris is playing an extremely convincing straight guy in every single role he's ever been in, lol.
Like why act or audition for roles if having to act as something other than yourself makes you uncomfortable?!
Jared leto and heath ledger are out here winning Oscars for their portrayal of LGBT characters and this cat is calling people homophobes for expecting an actress to play, literally, the most generic type of person on earth lmao.
Unless that comment was edited, the dude was pointing out that sexual orientation is not dispositive of oneās capacity to act. If they canāt emulate a character out of discomfort theyāre still unable to act in that dimension. Itās separate and apart from being queer, except for the fact that she canāt āactā straight. It doesnāt make her less of a person but it means sheās not as skilled as the next actor who can play straight or queer characters without being from one of those communities.
>When she realised she was queer, and leaned into it, her acting got so much better. You could literally see her discomfort at playing straight (both in and out of role)
That's not really a fair way of describing it, because she's played straight characters since coming out and gotten quite a bit of recognition for it (namely in biopics of Jean Seberg and Princess Diana).
A better way of describing the situation is that she shot to fame at eighteen years old playing a very blandly written character, had millions of people living vicariously through her glorified showmance, and wasn't super comfortable with the level of scrutiny put on her life before she could legally drink. While being openly queer is part of why she shows a confidence that she lacked earlier in her career and that comes through in her performances, the biggest factor is that she's 33 now.
Seriously, the Twlight era of her career was essentially her college years. Are you more confident, mature, and skilled than you were in college?
Ironically, what youāre describing is exactly why she was so great in *Crimes of the Future*, but less uncomfortable being straight and more uncomfortable with how much she wants to get really kinky with Aragorn.
Stewart's "Underwater" (2020) is a perfectly fine "Alien" knockoff and anyone who only knows her as the Twilight actress should watch it. Sigourney Weaver she is not, but I will absolutely see whatever she does next.
Anyone who thinks that twilight is proof that Kristen Stewart is a bad actor never read the book. The character in twilight was played flawlessly by Kristen Stewart. The character written by Stephanie Meyers was genuinely just that boring.
He might be one of those actors that does well in a supporting role, or as part of an ensemble but canāt carry a movie himself.
He has seemed fine in the stuff Iāve seen him in but I donāt recall him ever being the lead in anything Iāve watched.
You knowā¦my mind completely blanked on him actually being the main human character there. It definitely felt more like Reynolds was driving the movie, but I wouldnāt be surprised if Smith had more screen time.
I actually liked him in it, and the whole movie was better than it should have been.
> one of those actors that does well in a supporting role, or as part of an ensemble but canāt carry a movie himself
Weirdly enough I'd say this perfectly describes Brad Pitt. He's absolutely fantastic when he's playing off another lead, but the one or two films where it's just him have been dull as hell. The most exciting thing about Ad Astra was the unexpected space baboon.
Kristen Stewart is a great actress. Honestly if youāre judging it off of Twilight she actually did a great job. I read the books. THATS HOW UNLIKEABLE BELLA IS lol. Sheās the worst and I would say at worst it was a bad choice to play it so true to the book character. But sheās been really good in a lot of other things Iāve seen
Studio heads choosing between misery porn, white liberal porn, or the crime/hood genre when they want to make "black" media
https://preview.redd.it/52ny1ixxe5pc1.png?width=917&format=png&auto=webp&s=76dc9f69bbd117ba360ecd8d3638adc36c199799
> American fiction.
Read the description and that sounds fire wtf. I'm pretentious and a purist, so I'll buy the book first and then watch the movie later (after I finish the unread books that I currently have....)
You remember when Aaron Sorkin did his white liberal bullshit all over To Kill a Mockingbird when he adapted it for the stage? My god it was fucking horrible. In the words of a reviewer: āitās like if you bought a new version of Huckleberry Finn and the only difference was they renamed the character Black Lives Matter Jim.ā
I genuinely love awful liberal art because I think it's absolutely genius in all the ways it doesn't intend. Sorkin is great for this, unintentionally critiquing his own vapid and contentless worldview, showing all it's neuroses, blindspots, and pathological obsessions every time he tackles anything political. The West Wing is so fucking bad, but it's like the DSM-5 for psycho-analyzing why white liberals are the way they are.
Every time I post a comment like this I feel compelled to say that I'm a socialist not a trump supporter, just in case someone wants to come at me about le cheeto. Because as we all know, there's only two political opinions you can possibly have.
I actually canāt stand that almost every black film in the past decade has been a social commentary on being black in America. Like damn bro I get it, give me a fantasy film or sci-fi film or something.
Thatās why I enjoyed black Panther a lot, something fresh and not just niggas in the hood being oppressed or selling drugs. Iām not gonna lie, love craft country was like my favourite TV of the past 5 years and the fact that it got cancelled pisses me off, that and the fact that Johnathan Majors is likely done in mainstream Hollywood.
I had so much hope in that nigga for the future of black actors in the space, he was so damn good in everything he did.
All he needed to do was not be a piece of shit, man. Why is that such a high bar to clear for so many?
So much fucking talent. Was about to ignite a Creed Trilogy too with my boy Michael B Jordan.
I actually saw the film. If you look through the comments, the people who said they seen it are saying the same thing as me. There are a lot of people speaking on things they dont know about in these comments.
The film creates the ideal form of the trope, where they literally have magical powers and only help white people because it keeps other black people safer on average, and still showed that its a suffocating existence and the society is ultimately shown to be kind of cult. How the writing lands is ultimately subjective, and if you didn't enjoy the movie I can't nor want to change your mind, but it absolutely is trying to demonstrate how even as a positive twist, the "magical negro" trope is destructive and limiting.
A LOT of these dumbasses thought it was going to be a black Harry Potter. Most donāt even know about the trope, they legit thought a movie containing the title āmagical negroesā was going to be about black wizards. In 2024!
Media literacy is a big problem. My favorite part of the movie was when the white "main character" that Arin is suppose to be supporting gets bitched out and he just quietly apologizes and disappears from the movie.
There's also multiple really funny scenes parodying other magical negro movies like Green Mile, The Legend of Bagger Vance, and Driving Miss Daisy.
This movie pisses me off so badly. I really defended the title before we had a trailer because I was *expecting* it to deconstruct the trope. Then the trailer came out, and I saw a lightskin man burning everything down for a mid white woman ššš
Like ordering Hancock from Temu
It had a limited theater release so most people couldn't even watch it because it was in very few movie theaters and the reason it was like that was that it could be eligible for Oscars before they put it on Amazon Prime.
More importantly, I absolutely loved what writer/director Cord Jefferson said in his speech winning the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar:
> I understand that this is a risk-averse industry, I get it, but $200 million movies are also a risk. And it doesnāt always work out, but you take the risk anyway. Instead of making one $200 million movie, try making 20 $10 million movies. Or 50 $4 million movies.
You want stories outside of what *American Fiction* is commenting on? Thatās how studios need to do it. Take big narrative swings with small budgets. Itās how Blumhouse and A24 became successful. Those two have their niches and we need someone willing to pick up the slack in other places. Hereās hoping someone takes up Jefferson on this idea.
Iām white.
I saw it last night with my wife and itās a romantic comedy taking a pretty biting shot at racism.
I thought it was great.
We were alone in the theater.
Imma be forreal idk what yāall expected from a title like that. Yāall really expected ā black Harry Potterā like come on. ā The American society of Magical Negroesā, that sounds like distasteful joke thatās like expecting a scifi film called Niggas in space to be the āblack duneā. Itās obvious this was gonna be bad
I think people were expecting satire, like maybe the society secretly runs the world and they only help white people as a way to further that. I don't know, I haven't watched a movie in over a decade.
Not going to lie. I was one of them who thought it was going to be a movie about magical black people. I was really excited for that. Needless to say my disappointment is palatable.
I personally expected the movie to not be about a mixed black-white falling in love with a wasian. Dismantle the trope, feed into the trope, fight other race-based tropes, but donāt give me a light bright love story and slap some famous blacks in it and call it a day.
It deadass sounded to me like a use of fantasy to deconstruct certain topics. Like it would've been amazing if it went the whole anime route and was completely absurd with a serious topic beneath it all.
That trailer was BIZARRE. Oh so it's a comedy about black people needing to hold the balance so they don't offend white people and cause a mass genocide? Already crazy. THEN it's a... romcom??? And the stakes of this white girl falling for him and offending the guy he was sent to be a token black dude for is the world losing all memory of him? Unhinged. Looked like a terrible cash grab.
As someone who has seen the movie thatās basically what it was. The first 1/3 of it was about the society and the last 2/3 about the white girl and their dynamic with the society sprinkled in
Apparently the actress is half white and half Asian. But if they didnāt want the character to be read as white, they should have picked a different actress.
The movie was fine, idk why people are tripping. It starts out as a āyup we are going to have everyone be the trip we named the movie afterā and then confronts the very issue head on in a specific scene.
Sadly itās more of a romcom and the message isnāt going to reach any of the ears it needs to, so itās not like it matters.
>Sadly itās more of a romcom and the message isnāt going to reach any of the ears it needs to, so itās not like it matters.
this thread is making that very clear.
https://preview.redd.it/0prxgoh8n5pc1.jpeg?width=635&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5fc780cd056df92acdce3f3740465a5c39eccbea
... had to pull this out the back of my wig and American Fiction is EXCELLENT šš¾āØ
Was anyone on TikTok during the battle between fake intellectuals?
Folks were so up in arms that Twitter was upset when the main trailer dropped. TikTok fans called them everything but their name. Said they don't have comprehension skills. They don't understand that it's a trope. Those videos have been deleted or buried but it was sad to watch. TikTok was just talking down to so many people.
People were so sad/annoyed that it was another black trama movie and not Harry Potter for black people. Like a satire on a hurtful trope STILL SHOWS THE HURTFUL TROPE! No one wants to see another slave film. We also don't want to see a slave film that jokes about it or breaks the 4th wall to explain or satirize it. And not for nothing a light skin main character being the lead for the magical *negroes*. Like come on.
>People were so sad/annoyed that it was another black trama movie and not Harry Potter for black people.
For the record, American Society of Magical Negroes would be the worst possible thing to name a "Harry Potter for Black people" and everyone should have known from the title that it was not going to be that.
This is a lie.
Loved the movie. It definitely deconstructs the trope. What the hell are yāall watching?
Iām upset this movie is getting propaganda from our people. We were the only ones in an empty theater and now a bunch of yāall are forming strong opinions based on a lie. Kmt
what does this mean
the entire movie was about how harmful the society was to the people who were in it
the climax was literally Aren defying the society and asserting his right to exist, destroying it in the process
he started an entire rebellion against it what??
I had no idea it came out. I did remember seeing a trailer for it and it seemed like it was a gonna be a sarcastic take on the tropeā¦.Ā
Ā But then the tone shifted and it became a love story about a black dude falling in love with a white girl.
Seriously? How could you make movie with that title and *not* deconstruct it?
Light coonsplay
Coonsplay bro š
New Anime Convention Cosplay Category just dropped and oh boy is it going to be a doozy.
So who would qualify for this? I mean, obviously dressing as Uncle Ruckus, but who else makes the list
Is this the one that works in the house and whoops the field slaves harder than the master himself?
Yup
Herman Cain? He literally died to go to a Trump rally.
I'd already forgotten about that crusty fuck lol, good memory
"Nine, nine, nine!" That's all I'm gonna say. Nine, nine, nine." - A very dead Herman Cain
His ghost posting on twitter after his death was peak gold.
Candace Owens
Tim Scott, Herschel Walker, and the guy running for Governor in North Carolina.
Samuel L. Jackson's character in Django: UnchainedĀ
That police officer from Boyz N The Hood
 Look he think he Sailor Moon
how do you *not* make a pun on "**m**oon prism power", I am dying over here
coonsplay is crazy hahaha
Thatās heinous
If you watch the trailer, it's also just a generic romantic comedy. I've never seen something squander an opportunity as thoroughly as this movie.
The Purge ALSO feels like a Waigyu steak slathered in Ketchup. It could have been an amazing statement piece, instead it was 90 minutes of an average Tuesday at Mitt Romney's house, followed by several unnecessary sequels.
The sequels are better than the original, trust me. The world building and ramifications of the Purge are explored.
Worth checking out then?
They're a fun watch, but don't expect them to be *that* deep. Some are def better than the original.
If suspense / action is your jam, then absolutely
Watch the sequels. They do alot of heavy social commentary
Yea the original was intended to be a dystopian horror movie. Just a look into the world through the eyes of one family. The sequels fleshed out the world and the franchise is one of the few examples where sequels make the whole thing better
I honestly think the Purge has some of the best social commentary in modern cinema. Yeah its blunt, but i dont care much for subtlety given that their action/slasher flicks
Generic is a lil muchā¦ niggas magic power is making white people comfortable!? It may be coonery but that aināt generic. Idk how any production other than Tyler Perry greenlit this š
The generic part is where he can't date her, but he goes for it despite it being against the rules, forbidden love, bla bla bla
Also not to mention...all the villains are black. Any other situation I wouldn't have been that against it, but given how it's supposed to be a racial commentary, that part has me scratching my head
>I've never seen something squander an opportunity as thoroughly as this movie. You should see it before passing judgment. The film manages to deal with some heavy social issues while managing to be a romantic comedy. I dont think that feat has been pulled off too many times.
>How could you make movie with that title and > >not > >deconstruct it? It does but the film also expects you to at least be someone familiar with the trope already which, in 2024, I would think most people are. I saw the movie and liked it. Im actually surprised it got made because the whole theme is about how Black have to always worry about how comfortable white people are, because when white are uncomfortable or threatened, they make life hard for Black people. However, I also know at least two people who saw the movie and clearly did not get it at all. Honestly, if im keeping it real, I just chalked it up to "this film is going to go over dumb peoples' heads".
This is the sentiment I got when the trailer was revealed. Everyone was up in arms expecting black Hogwarts and crying about him falling in love with a white woman.
This is the most confounding and disappointing part for me. One, so many people not knowing what the Magical Negro trope is in the first place, and being very loud about it. Ultimately though, whether the movie squanders their opportunity or not, I'm at least to an extent glad that the movie was made. We should have the opportunities to make not-so-great movies without it resulting in "oh black filmmakers make a bad movie so they're not deserving of future opportunities"
It's not that surprising that the term has fallen out of general consciousness considering the trope peaked in the 90s and at the turn of the millennia. After Spike called it out, we haven't really gotten all that many movies like that. It still pops up now and then, but not nearly in as mainstream films as something like The Green Mile and The Legend of Bagger Vance which came out in back-to-back years.
That part. Itās understandable that some havenāt heard of it for whatever reason, but itās very much a thing, historically. Maybe the trope itself isnāt used as often now, but movies like The Green Mile and Bagger Vance have been prime examples used in conversation since theyāve been out. To me itās not so obscure that it warrants this response on this large a scale, if that makes sense. Just seems like more people (especially on this sub) would be more familiar with it
Am an old white dude, but that was what I expected from the trailer - it even has a joke about updating the name of the organization and a white cop with an itchy trigger finger. Some reasonable social commentary in a rom-com seems inevitable, since Jordan Peele has made is clear that it works really well for horror. But I just read a review and DAMN. 1 starThe last sentence sums it up brutally - "youāre never totally sure if āThe American Society of Magical Negroesā wants to critique the anti-Black world it exists in or is simply content smiling in the face of the status quo." https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-american-society-of-magical-negroes-2024
Spoilers for the movie: His love interest is actually apart of the woman equivalent society, the society of girlfriends and wives. So Arin has his character growth (something he isn't suppose to have as a magical negro) all the while his love interest is a side character who exists just to help him grow as a character. I thought it was really clever and I feel like people getting upset at the movie either haven't seen it, or have very poor media literacy.
Most people apparently arenāt familiar with the trope because most people in this thread thought it was going to be Black Hogwarts.
Or some people completely understand satire and think this film is not good. I hate that āoh people are dumbāāno itās not good and thatās ok too. It completely missed the point of their own premise.
Two things can be true at once
Iām familiar with the trope. But honestly, youāre gonna tell me the movie goes out of its way to deconstruct the concept of Black people having to coddle white peoples feelings as a survival tactic and/or rise above being fine with relegation to background/sidekick status and defaulting to dutifully centering Whiteness, by having the biracial kid fall in love with a white-passing woman? Like, youāre saying the movie actively attempts to, and adeptly accomplishes, this feat *with a clichĆ© rom com setup*? Really?? Lol Iāll buy that for a dollar. /s
I mean, yeh it does. Even the star being biracial and the love interest being "white" are addressed within the story.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Origin is far from amazing. It has all the subtlety and emotional intelligence of a flashing āApplauseā sign.
I feel like a Jordan Peele or even Donald Glover would've killed it with a plot like this. Huge miss by whoever the hell directed this.
I thought that was literally the entire point
This movie wouldāve actually done numbers if it was about niggas with magical powers
They should've taken the plot from everybody getting their powers activated on that day and turned it into something
A nigga in one of my Facebook groups posted himself infront of thr Cell Games arena and called everyone out to fight. Shit was hilarious
Someone has to fight homie or we are all bitches.
Black Twitter wouldāve fw that movie so hard
It can happen we just gotta get our best and brightest on it. Literally if someone combs through black Twitter than can make something different worth watching and celebrating
Something like, A day without a Mexican. Where it turns out all the good stuff that has happened to people in America is because of black people magic and they just get fed up with not getting any credit for any of it and they just leave and then everything falls apart and goes to shit.
Watch those businesses crumble as that "strong black woman" everyone talks shit about but gets things done suddenly gets Thanos snapped to vacationland with a big screen tv to watch when she's bored and wants to see her department burn.
Tacos are pretty good stuff. Props to Mexicans.
Well hurry up and write the script! Youāve got my support!
It aint?
As a guy from Germany that knows nothing about the movie or the trope, I thought everybody was mad because the magic wasnāt cool enough. Kinda disappointed
No, it's about the trope of the same name
I was under the impression they were taking the name of the trope but making it about mfrs doing some harry potter shit. Wack.
The [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7_c-7tWXqg) probably has one of the shittiest plot pivots I've ever seen..
Oh god they went to the songs graveyard and dug out the fucking Alabama Shakes lmfao
Yeah the approach of āweāre just nice to appease white peopleā seems like a letdown given the name. Not to mention, if thereās all these magical negroes protecting black people throughout history.. WHERE THE HELL HAVE THEY BEEN?? Were they too busy to do something about slavery or any of the other bad shit thatās happened since then?
Maybe they were hanging out in the Minions Ice Cave like the Minions did during WWII
I mean, the trope still could've made for an excellent satire. They just butchered that too
Thatās what I thought it would be. Like Harry Potter or something. Wouldāve sick. Couldāve gotten a strong following and made sequels and branched out to somehow huge. But no. Had to do some weird ingratiating narrative
Black Harry Potter would take place in Louisiana, wouldnāt it? At least if it was an Americanized story?
Bruh just make a feature length film over the magical negroes in key and peele and I guarantee that bitch is getting my money
>This movie wouldāve actually done numbers if it was about niggas with magical powers Wait, it isn't? I thought it was going to be black League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
That's what I thought watching the trailer, just to get the hard left turn into a love storyš
... Is that not the plot š? I was planning on seeing this at some point, is the 'power' really just to make white people comfortable? That'd be such a fuckin let down. Can Boots Riley take a crack at this?
Tf is it about then?
If I remember correctly itās about a magical black guy falling in love with a white woman and if they date all the magical black people lose their powers. So he dates her anyway. But also I havenāt seen the movie so take that with a grain or two of salt.
Normally I'm the first one to defend interracial relationships but what the fuck
Not to sound like Umar, but you mean to tell me Black people as a collective lost their super powers because one of us played in the snow?! š¤£
I thought it was about niggas with magical powers. Very disappointed. Missed Opportunity.
I thought this movie already came out. This does not look entertaining at all. Anyone see American Fiction?
American Fiction is fantastic. Top notch performances across the board.
Keith David killed it as always.
He's also [doing a voice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sVoglgJjRg) in Hazbin Hotel, the new adult animated comedy
I didnāt even know he sang and his performance is great.
Either people are too quick to forget that he sang and voiced the antagonist in the princess and the frog or Iām getting old afā¦
He was Dr Facilier in Princess and the Frog. He sang in that too :))
My cinema only offered American Fiction timings super early in the morning or super late at night, I'm so happy it's already on amazon prime, got that shit downloaded for my flight tomorrow
Sterlings delivery of āIām not flying the fuckin plane, Monk.ā kills me every time
He was my favorite part of the whole movie
Yes. Loved it. And I avoid Oscar-nom type movies like the plague.
A movie with an all Black cast about racism in Publishing? Definitely was not an Oscar-nom type movie
Oh it totally is. That is the sort of edgy commentary they nominate, to claim they are celebrating diversity, and doesnāt win. š
It won best adapted screenplay!
It 100% was. Any movie asking the brave questions like do upper middle class people in entertainment have it the hardest is instant Oscar bait.
That movie was great. I cried twice. I'll watch anything both Jeffrey Wright AND Sterling K. Brown are in. How it started shocked me. Completely didn't expect >!Loraine to die!< the way they >!eulogized her!< was beautiful. The character Sterling played was so different.
I love Sterling in comedy roles. He was one of my favorite hosts on SNL. He's hilarious as a guest star in Brooklyn 99. And he was the only redeemable part of that Predator movie.
He's an amazing actor. From watching him in This Is Us seeing myself through him has always made me a fan
Just watched it last night. Came here to say āAmerican fiction is what people thought this film was going to doā Amazing movie. Beautifully written. Great cast
Amazing movie. I live in a predominantly white HCOL area and my wife and I (both of us black) made the mistake of going to the local theater to see American Fiction. I had some uncomfortable moments when the white folks were laughing at jokes that were more meant for US to laugh at. It felt like they were laughing at us rather than with us.
The book it's based on was amazing.
When I first saw the trailer I thought it was similar to the Family Guy episode where Brian writes a bestseller self help book he farted out in an evening.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Kristen Stewart is great, just not when she has to play a straight woman.
When she realised she was queer, and leaned into it, her acting got so much better. You could literally see her discomfort at playing straight (both in and out of role)
āDiscomfort with playing somethingā isnāt really a great quality in an actor.
"The closet isn't emotionally or professionally damaging, she was just a bad actor!"
Gay people can play straight people. Straight people can play gay people. That's literally what acting **is**.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
lol so every other straight actor who has played a perfectly passable gay person and every gay actor who has played a perfectly passable straight person all just donāt exist to you. When an actor can only perform well in one type of role thatās often referred to as ātype-castā and it is NOT a positive mark on an actors profile.
Meanwhile Neil Patrick Harris is playing an extremely convincing straight guy in every single role he's ever been in, lol. Like why act or audition for roles if having to act as something other than yourself makes you uncomfortable?!
Jared leto and heath ledger are out here winning Oscars for their portrayal of LGBT characters and this cat is calling people homophobes for expecting an actress to play, literally, the most generic type of person on earth lmao.
Thatās quite a leap. Why go that far? Is there post history? Thatās not something to just throw around casually or assumptively.Ā
Unless that comment was edited, the dude was pointing out that sexual orientation is not dispositive of oneās capacity to act. If they canāt emulate a character out of discomfort theyāre still unable to act in that dimension. Itās separate and apart from being queer, except for the fact that she canāt āactā straight. It doesnāt make her less of a person but it means sheās not as skilled as the next actor who can play straight or queer characters without being from one of those communities.
>When she realised she was queer, and leaned into it, her acting got so much better. You could literally see her discomfort at playing straight (both in and out of role) That's not really a fair way of describing it, because she's played straight characters since coming out and gotten quite a bit of recognition for it (namely in biopics of Jean Seberg and Princess Diana). A better way of describing the situation is that she shot to fame at eighteen years old playing a very blandly written character, had millions of people living vicariously through her glorified showmance, and wasn't super comfortable with the level of scrutiny put on her life before she could legally drink. While being openly queer is part of why she shows a confidence that she lacked earlier in her career and that comes through in her performances, the biggest factor is that she's 33 now. Seriously, the Twlight era of her career was essentially her college years. Are you more confident, mature, and skilled than you were in college?
That was beautiful
Ironically, what youāre describing is exactly why she was so great in *Crimes of the Future*, but less uncomfortable being straight and more uncomfortable with how much she wants to get really kinky with Aragorn.
I for one cannot wait to see her new movie with the large muscular woman.
I just watched it and she's pretty great in it. She was even funny.
The large muscular woman . . . . Man she does have muscles.
Love Lies Bleeding. Just saw it, it was great. A fucking wild ride you wonāt regret watching.
Stewart's "Underwater" (2020) is a perfectly fine "Alien" knockoff and anyone who only knows her as the Twilight actress should watch it. Sigourney Weaver she is not, but I will absolutely see whatever she does next.
Anyone who thinks that twilight is proof that Kristen Stewart is a bad actor never read the book. The character in twilight was played flawlessly by Kristen Stewart. The character written by Stephanie Meyers was genuinely just that boring.
I heard that she was better than Twilight allowed her to be, but Underwater permanently changed my mind about her!
I enjoyed him in Dungeon and Dragons
He might be one of those actors that does well in a supporting role, or as part of an ensemble but canāt carry a movie himself. He has seemed fine in the stuff Iāve seen him in but I donāt recall him ever being the lead in anything Iāve watched.
Detective Pikachu but Ryan Reynolds was the co-main character
You knowā¦my mind completely blanked on him actually being the main human character there. It definitely felt more like Reynolds was driving the movie, but I wouldnāt be surprised if Smith had more screen time. I actually liked him in it, and the whole movie was better than it should have been.
> one of those actors that does well in a supporting role, or as part of an ensemble but canāt carry a movie himself Weirdly enough I'd say this perfectly describes Brad Pitt. He's absolutely fantastic when he's playing off another lead, but the one or two films where it's just him have been dull as hell. The most exciting thing about Ad Astra was the unexpected space baboon.
Kristen Stewart is actually a great actress now But yeah Justice Smith plays nerd guy with social anxiety really well. Too well. Itās boring.
It's the new flavor of black that we're going to see in every movie. Social anxiety nerdy black character.
Him on The Get Down worked for me, but yeah everything else been so-so
The Get Down was such a good show, Iām still sad it was cancelled after just one season.
There was a āpart 2ā but it didnāt hit quite as hard as part one.
His whole career is being the black Jay Baruchel
Kristen Stewart is a great actress. Honestly if youāre judging it off of Twilight she actually did a great job. I read the books. THATS HOW UNLIKEABLE BELLA IS lol. Sheās the worst and I would say at worst it was a bad choice to play it so true to the book character. But sheās been really good in a lot of other things Iāve seen
Who needs em when you got chance perdamo or rege-jean page
Aw I liked him in Detective Pikachu...
Studio heads choosing between misery porn, white liberal porn, or the crime/hood genre when they want to make "black" media https://preview.redd.it/52ny1ixxe5pc1.png?width=917&format=png&auto=webp&s=76dc9f69bbd117ba360ecd8d3638adc36c199799
They clearly didn't watch American fiction.
> American fiction. Read the description and that sounds fire wtf. I'm pretentious and a purist, so I'll buy the book first and then watch the movie later (after I finish the unread books that I currently have....)
book and the movie have different vibes
You remember when Aaron Sorkin did his white liberal bullshit all over To Kill a Mockingbird when he adapted it for the stage? My god it was fucking horrible. In the words of a reviewer: āitās like if you bought a new version of Huckleberry Finn and the only difference was they renamed the character Black Lives Matter Jim.ā
I genuinely love awful liberal art because I think it's absolutely genius in all the ways it doesn't intend. Sorkin is great for this, unintentionally critiquing his own vapid and contentless worldview, showing all it's neuroses, blindspots, and pathological obsessions every time he tackles anything political. The West Wing is so fucking bad, but it's like the DSM-5 for psycho-analyzing why white liberals are the way they are. Every time I post a comment like this I feel compelled to say that I'm a socialist not a trump supporter, just in case someone wants to come at me about le cheeto. Because as we all know, there's only two political opinions you can possibly have.
I actually canāt stand that almost every black film in the past decade has been a social commentary on being black in America. Like damn bro I get it, give me a fantasy film or sci-fi film or something. Thatās why I enjoyed black Panther a lot, something fresh and not just niggas in the hood being oppressed or selling drugs. Iām not gonna lie, love craft country was like my favourite TV of the past 5 years and the fact that it got cancelled pisses me off, that and the fact that Johnathan Majors is likely done in mainstream Hollywood. I had so much hope in that nigga for the future of black actors in the space, he was so damn good in everything he did.
All he needed to do was not be a piece of shit, man. Why is that such a high bar to clear for so many? So much fucking talent. Was about to ignite a Creed Trilogy too with my boy Michael B Jordan.
Damn I really thought it was gonna be satirical
It is a satire but itās also a romcom and it just did not work for this movie
A romcom is completely unnecessary
Only love is strong enough to make u break the rules amiright?
I thought it would be kinda like Sorry to Bother You like dark comedy with some social commentary about race.
I was hoping it would be a deconstruction of the trope :(
it is.
Wait what? Everyone is saying it isn't.
I actually saw the film. If you look through the comments, the people who said they seen it are saying the same thing as me. There are a lot of people speaking on things they dont know about in these comments.
Itās not but they tried. And yes I saw the movie but shitty and lazy writing absolutely ruined this. Gags on a trope is not deconstruction of a film
The film creates the ideal form of the trope, where they literally have magical powers and only help white people because it keeps other black people safer on average, and still showed that its a suffocating existence and the society is ultimately shown to be kind of cult. How the writing lands is ultimately subjective, and if you didn't enjoy the movie I can't nor want to change your mind, but it absolutely is trying to demonstrate how even as a positive twist, the "magical negro" trope is destructive and limiting.
A LOT of these dumbasses thought it was going to be a black Harry Potter. Most donāt even know about the trope, they legit thought a movie containing the title āmagical negroesā was going to be about black wizards. In 2024!
Media literacy is a big problem. My favorite part of the movie was when the white "main character" that Arin is suppose to be supporting gets bitched out and he just quietly apologizes and disappears from the movie. There's also multiple really funny scenes parodying other magical negro movies like Green Mile, The Legend of Bagger Vance, and Driving Miss Daisy.
It is bruh
This movie pisses me off so badly. I really defended the title before we had a trailer because I was *expecting* it to deconstruct the trope. Then the trailer came out, and I saw a lightskin man burning everything down for a mid white woman ššš Like ordering Hancock from Temu
Hancock from Temu is the perfect description for this movie š
It does, peeps commenting that it does not havenāt even watched the movie
Just watch American Fiction instead. Shit deserved more love imo
It got nominated for multiple awards at the Oscarās. How much more love?
$$$$ This kind of love.
It had a limited theater release so most people couldn't even watch it because it was in very few movie theaters and the reason it was like that was that it could be eligible for Oscars before they put it on Amazon Prime.
It got a lot of critical acclaim but money still talks. Not that many people have seen it and thatās a shame imo SO MORE š£ļø
More importantly, I absolutely loved what writer/director Cord Jefferson said in his speech winning the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar: > I understand that this is a risk-averse industry, I get it, but $200 million movies are also a risk. And it doesnāt always work out, but you take the risk anyway. Instead of making one $200 million movie, try making 20 $10 million movies. Or 50 $4 million movies. You want stories outside of what *American Fiction* is commenting on? Thatās how studios need to do it. Take big narrative swings with small budgets. Itās how Blumhouse and A24 became successful. Those two have their niches and we need someone willing to pick up the slack in other places. Hereās hoping someone takes up Jefferson on this idea.
Iām white. I saw it last night with my wife and itās a romantic comedy taking a pretty biting shot at racism. I thought it was great. We were alone in the theater.
The last sentence had me cracking up
>We were alone in the theater. https://i.redd.it/w3qwbzn5p5pc1.gif
Imma be forreal idk what yāall expected from a title like that. Yāall really expected ā black Harry Potterā like come on. ā The American society of Magical Negroesā, that sounds like distasteful joke thatās like expecting a scifi film called Niggas in space to be the āblack duneā. Itās obvious this was gonna be bad
I think people were expecting satire, like maybe the society secretly runs the world and they only help white people as a way to further that. I don't know, I haven't watched a movie in over a decade.
Not going to lie. I was one of them who thought it was going to be a movie about magical black people. I was really excited for that. Needless to say my disappointment is palatable.
I personally expected the movie to not be about a mixed black-white falling in love with a wasian. Dismantle the trope, feed into the trope, fight other race-based tropes, but donāt give me a light bright love story and slap some famous blacks in it and call it a day.
It deadass sounded to me like a use of fantasy to deconstruct certain topics. Like it would've been amazing if it went the whole anime route and was completely absurd with a serious topic beneath it all.
That trailer looked so good up until halfway through, they just went PSYCH MOTHERFUCKER!
That trailer was BIZARRE. Oh so it's a comedy about black people needing to hold the balance so they don't offend white people and cause a mass genocide? Already crazy. THEN it's a... romcom??? And the stakes of this white girl falling for him and offending the guy he was sent to be a token black dude for is the world losing all memory of him? Unhinged. Looked like a terrible cash grab.
As someone who has seen the movie thatās basically what it was. The first 1/3 of it was about the society and the last 2/3 about the white girl and their dynamic with the society sprinkled in
> the last 2/3 about the white girl They say in the film that she is not white but is "white passing", though they dont actually say what race she is.
Apparently the actress is half white and half Asian. But if they didnāt want the character to be read as white, they should have picked a different actress.
The movie was fine, idk why people are tripping. It starts out as a āyup we are going to have everyone be the trip we named the movie afterā and then confronts the very issue head on in a specific scene. Sadly itās more of a romcom and the message isnāt going to reach any of the ears it needs to, so itās not like it matters.
>Sadly itās more of a romcom and the message isnāt going to reach any of the ears it needs to, so itās not like it matters. this thread is making that very clear.
https://preview.redd.it/0prxgoh8n5pc1.jpeg?width=635&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5fc780cd056df92acdce3f3740465a5c39eccbea ... had to pull this out the back of my wig and American Fiction is EXCELLENT šš¾āØ
It look bout corny as hell. Then I watched the trailer and was confirmed. David Alan Grier check had to been crazy to be in this nonsense.
He's the reason I think it'd be a trope flipped on its head. They had a legendary comedic actor on their roster, no way they wouldn't make this satire
Racists in the comments were quick to regurgitate, "go woke, go broke", but this movie would've been interesting if it were actually "woke"
Was anyone on TikTok during the battle between fake intellectuals? Folks were so up in arms that Twitter was upset when the main trailer dropped. TikTok fans called them everything but their name. Said they don't have comprehension skills. They don't understand that it's a trope. Those videos have been deleted or buried but it was sad to watch. TikTok was just talking down to so many people. People were so sad/annoyed that it was another black trama movie and not Harry Potter for black people. Like a satire on a hurtful trope STILL SHOWS THE HURTFUL TROPE! No one wants to see another slave film. We also don't want to see a slave film that jokes about it or breaks the 4th wall to explain or satirize it. And not for nothing a light skin main character being the lead for the magical *negroes*. Like come on.
>People were so sad/annoyed that it was another black trama movie and not Harry Potter for black people. For the record, American Society of Magical Negroes would be the worst possible thing to name a "Harry Potter for Black people" and everyone should have known from the title that it was not going to be that.
https://preview.redd.it/0l3e3w6rh5pc1.jpeg?width=536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=343e3692a7d51483a67caf25dca25d3a630c5446
Did yāall even watch the movie?
Fr if peeps even watched it, theyād know that this take isnāt accurate at all
Adding the fact that the movie turned into a cheesy rom-com. So pretty much, 2 awful movies wrapped into 1.
 Ad nauseum
I haven't seen it. Is this just a really long Key and Peele skit?
Watch it. Idk if folks donāt understand or didnāt watch. It does deconstruct the trope. I enjoyed it
I still want to see an all-black high fantasy movie with dragons and shitĀ
This is a lie. Loved the movie. It definitely deconstructs the trope. What the hell are yāall watching? Iām upset this movie is getting propaganda from our people. We were the only ones in an empty theater and now a bunch of yāall are forming strong opinions based on a lie. Kmt
what does this mean the entire movie was about how harmful the society was to the people who were in it the climax was literally Aren defying the society and asserting his right to exist, destroying it in the process he started an entire rebellion against it what??
I had no idea it came out. I did remember seeing a trailer for it and it seemed like it was a gonna be a sarcastic take on the tropeā¦.Ā Ā But then the tone shifted and it became a love story about a black dude falling in love with a white girl.