REVIEW:
American Fiction is a pretty good movie, until it isn’t. What that means is that the first three quarters or so are great. But then somewhere in the second half things start to fall apart. The movie is about an author going through a crisis of authenticity. He realizes that he needs to sell out and be fake in order to sell books. Only he doesn’t exactly accept that and run with it. Instead, he writes a book that is meant to be a joke, and is shocked to learn that the publishers want to print it, and then that the public loves it. And while you would think that all of this would make the writer happy, it actually only makes him angrier. Now all of that is fine, and it’s actually pretty funny. It’s certainly different than the usual movie, even if it does have a sort of Jerry Maguire – exposing the fairness of our society by calling it out – kind of vibe.
But then the movie goes too far, first with a title change that is ridiculous, and then with an ending structure that just leaves the viewer trying to figure out what actually happened. And here’s the thing… there is no answer. If you thought the ending of the Sopranos left things up to the viewer, this one takes that idea to the next level, and not in a good way. It’s a real shame because this movie had a lot going for it including an interesting brother character, and a great romantic relationship that met some real highs and lows. But some poor choices towards the end definitely prevent this movie from being great.