Plot: A black university professor (Jeffrey Wright) who’s frustrated that all of his non-race related books are being deemed “black” writes a stereotypical, deliberately bad novel about “the hood,” and, to his dismay, it becomes a cultural phenomenon and best-seller.
Review: American Fiction could have been didactic and heavy-handed. Indeed, it has a lot to say about race and how the black narratives that go mainstream overwhelmingly follow a predictable route (being about the hood or slavery). Still, it does so in a humane, often hilarious way. Writer-director Cord Jefferson, adapting the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, has made one of the year’s most sophisticated satires, albeit one with a big heart and an empathetic core. While a film about race, there’s also a universal side to it, with it being concerned not only with how other people see us but also with how we see ourselves.
Review: American Fiction could have been didactic and heavy-handed. Indeed, it has a lot to say about race and how the black narratives that go mainstream overwhelmingly follow a predictable route (being about the hood or slavery). Still, it does so in a humane, often hilarious way. Writer-director Cord Jefferson, adapting the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, has made one of the year’s most sophisticated satires, albeit one with a big heart and an empathetic core. While a film about race, there’s also a universal side to it, with it being concerned not only with how other people see us but also with how we see ourselves.
- 1/13/2024
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.
There’s never been a better time to be a whiskey lover. The brown liquor is now more popular, more diverse, and — most importantly — more delicious than ever. Plus, with the recent explosion of mixology in the U.S., whiskey is also necessary in any bar for cocktails such as a Don Draper-approved old-fashioned, whiskey sours and Manhattans.
If you’ve been drinking the stuff for years, you’re in a good place.
There’s never been a better time to be a whiskey lover. The brown liquor is now more popular, more diverse, and — most importantly — more delicious than ever. Plus, with the recent explosion of mixology in the U.S., whiskey is also necessary in any bar for cocktails such as a Don Draper-approved old-fashioned, whiskey sours and Manhattans.
If you’ve been drinking the stuff for years, you’re in a good place.
- 1/12/2024
- by Oscar Hartzog and Sage Anderson
- Rollingstone.com
Jeffrey Wright, star of Cord Jefferson’s provocative debut feature American Fiction, says he felt a personal affinity with his character Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison in the film, in part because of the challenges Monk experiences with regard to family issues. Monk is an author and a professor of English literature who discovers he may have to lower his standards to attain some kind of glory in the phony world of publishing. We follow him as he takes an enforced leave of absence to care for his ailing mother, a situation that the actor himself is painfully familiar with — Wright’s mother died a year before he received Jefferson’s script.
Deadline: You were born and raised in Washington, D.C. and American Fiction is based on a novel set in D.C. Did anything in the script make you think of your own upbringing?
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah. Cord Jefferson,...
Deadline: You were born and raised in Washington, D.C. and American Fiction is based on a novel set in D.C. Did anything in the script make you think of your own upbringing?
Jeffrey Wright: Yeah. Cord Jefferson,...
- 1/12/2024
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
After a starry awards gala kicked off the Palm Springs Film Festival, several of this year’s awards contenders and friends reconnected at Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch & Creative Impact Awards Presented by Directv, Friday at the Parker Palm Springs hotel.
Before the presentation, the honorees posed on the red carpet and stopped for questions with Variety’s senior culture & events editor Marc Malkin. Anna Kendrick, a new member of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch, recalled the first time she yelled action on set for her film “Woman of the Hour.”
“Day one I was really worried about moving slowly on the first shot, of the first day, of the first Monday because it always sets the tone for the week,” the star-turned-director said. “And certainly, the very first one sets the tone for the whole shoot. I really raced through the first couple of setups because I was like,...
Before the presentation, the honorees posed on the red carpet and stopped for questions with Variety’s senior culture & events editor Marc Malkin. Anna Kendrick, a new member of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch, recalled the first time she yelled action on set for her film “Woman of the Hour.”
“Day one I was really worried about moving slowly on the first shot, of the first day, of the first Monday because it always sets the tone for the week,” the star-turned-director said. “And certainly, the very first one sets the tone for the whole shoot. I really raced through the first couple of setups because I was like,...
- 1/6/2024
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Hello, and welcome to the Scene 2 Seen Podcast. I am Valerie Complex, an associate editor and film writer at Deadline.
Today, for the final episode of 2023 (!), we’re talking to director-writer Cord Jefferson and producer Jermaine Johnson about their latest project American Fiction, which won the TIFF Audience Award. The film stars Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, Erika Alexander and John Ortiz.
American Fiction follows Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Wright), a respected author and professor of English literature. But his impatience with his students’ cultural sensitivities is threatening his academic standing, while his latest novel is failing to attract publishers; they claim Monk’s writing “isn’t Black enough.” One night, in a fit of spite, Monk concocts a pseudonymous novel embodying every Black cliché he can imagine. His agent submits it to a major publisher who immediately offers the biggest advance Monk’s ever seen.
Today, for the final episode of 2023 (!), we’re talking to director-writer Cord Jefferson and producer Jermaine Johnson about their latest project American Fiction, which won the TIFF Audience Award. The film stars Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, Erika Alexander and John Ortiz.
American Fiction follows Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Wright), a respected author and professor of English literature. But his impatience with his students’ cultural sensitivities is threatening his academic standing, while his latest novel is failing to attract publishers; they claim Monk’s writing “isn’t Black enough.” One night, in a fit of spite, Monk concocts a pseudonymous novel embodying every Black cliché he can imagine. His agent submits it to a major publisher who immediately offers the biggest advance Monk’s ever seen.
- 12/29/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
In 2017, The Hollywood Reporter gave me the opportunity to write an oral history about a passion of mine, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the groundbreaking variety program anchored by Tommy Smothers, who died Tuesday at age 86, and his brother, Dick. Airing on CBS from 1967-70, the controversial show offered an alternate television universe for a young generation, filled with sharp humor, political satire, rock music and relevance. Not ahead of its time but rather right on it.
I compiled countless interviews with what felt like every surviving performer from the show, including Steve Martin and Rob Reiner. Everyone except the brothers themselves, who had proved rather elusive.
Through back channels, I finally acquired Tommy Smothers’ cellphone number, along with a series of warnings. First, I was told, be persistent because he hardly ever answers his phone. Second, be persistent because he probably won’t return your call. And third, don...
I compiled countless interviews with what felt like every surviving performer from the show, including Steve Martin and Rob Reiner. Everyone except the brothers themselves, who had proved rather elusive.
Through back channels, I finally acquired Tommy Smothers’ cellphone number, along with a series of warnings. First, I was told, be persistent because he hardly ever answers his phone. Second, be persistent because he probably won’t return your call. And third, don...
- 12/29/2023
- by Marc Freeman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“Poor Things,” “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “American Fiction,” “All of Us Strangers,” and “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” all received Best Adapted Screenplay bids from the Critics Choice Awards thus giving their Oscar hopes in this category a timely boost. Some of them were lauded even further at the Golden Globes, which nominated “Poor Things,” “Oppenheimer,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” alongside “Barbie,” “Past Lives,” and “Anatomy of Fall” in a combined Best Screenplay category.
So, those are the preferences of those two awards groups. But what about the tastes of the academy? Well, below is a chart detailing the last 10 Oscar winners for Best Adapted Screenplay. We’re going to break this down to see what the academy likes and try to apply the findings to this year’s race.
As you can see, novels are the academy’s favorite source material, accounting for...
So, those are the preferences of those two awards groups. But what about the tastes of the academy? Well, below is a chart detailing the last 10 Oscar winners for Best Adapted Screenplay. We’re going to break this down to see what the academy likes and try to apply the findings to this year’s race.
As you can see, novels are the academy’s favorite source material, accounting for...
- 12/27/2023
- by Jacob Sarkisian
- Gold Derby
At the tail end of my interview with American Fiction director Cord Jefferson, I asked him a brief question about finding the right tone for the ending of this directorial debut. Much to my surprise, he went deep into all aspects of the final moments: the extensive process of finding the right beat to conclude on, where he drew inspiration from for the meta ending, the test screening reactions, and more. With the film now out in wide release, it’s the opportune time to share this behind-the-scenes look at crafting the perfect finale.
As a refresher: Despite his desire for it not to receive recognition, Monk’s book “Fuck” wins the literary prize. At this point, Jefferson smashes to black and we cut to a new scene on the set of a new film: Plantation Annihilation, directed by Wiley (Adam Brody). Wiley and Monk are reviewing the end of...
As a refresher: Despite his desire for it not to receive recognition, Monk’s book “Fuck” wins the literary prize. At this point, Jefferson smashes to black and we cut to a new scene on the set of a new film: Plantation Annihilation, directed by Wiley (Adam Brody). Wiley and Monk are reviewing the end of...
- 12/25/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Two Indian films Salaar Part 1 – Ceasefire and Dunki buoyed the North American box office on a relatively quiet holiday weekend as Searchlight Pictures’ All Of Us Strangers had a solid per-screen openings and Poor Things a nice expansion.
From Tollywood to Bollywood, this was a one-two-punch illustrating the key role of Indian films at the U.S. box office, especially this weekend as Christmas shopping and Christmas Eve slowed theater traffic.
Telugu film Salaar Part 1 – Ceasefire opened at $5.48 million on 802 screens to a no. 5 spot in North America. Distributed in the U.S. by Moksha Movies and Pathyangira Cinemas. The action pic directed by Prashanth Neel stars Prabhas, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Shruti Haasan, Jagapathi Babu.
And Dunki from Yas Raj Films, starring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Raju Hirani, grossed an estimated $3.59 million on 686 screens for the no. ten spot. The estimate through Sunday is $4.8 million.
Among indie fare, Andrew Haigh...
From Tollywood to Bollywood, this was a one-two-punch illustrating the key role of Indian films at the U.S. box office, especially this weekend as Christmas shopping and Christmas Eve slowed theater traffic.
Telugu film Salaar Part 1 – Ceasefire opened at $5.48 million on 802 screens to a no. 5 spot in North America. Distributed in the U.S. by Moksha Movies and Pathyangira Cinemas. The action pic directed by Prashanth Neel stars Prabhas, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Shruti Haasan, Jagapathi Babu.
And Dunki from Yas Raj Films, starring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Raju Hirani, grossed an estimated $3.59 million on 686 screens for the no. ten spot. The estimate through Sunday is $4.8 million.
Among indie fare, Andrew Haigh...
- 12/24/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Cord Jefferson wants to tell a quick story. It involves something that happened to a friend of his, although the writer-director of American Fiction is quick to point out that the incident in question could have easily happened to any number of Black creatives he knows, or for that matter, himself. This friend was an aspiring screenwriter who took a meeting with studio executives. They asked her what she was interested in doing. I want to write a rom-com, she answered. Maybe an erotic thriller. Great, they said. Love it.
- 12/24/2023
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Whip-smart and blisteringly funny, American Fiction is a late-in-the-year treat. Not only does it give Jeffrey Wright one of the best roles of his storied career, but it also announces a new cinematic voice in writer/director Cord Jefferson.
Wright stars as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, an English professor and a writer of critically acclaimed but low-selling book. Monk’s in a bad place at the beginning of the film; he’s on leave from his job after berating a student, and his latest book is being rejected by publishers as not being “Black enough.” This rightfully bothers Ellison, because he’s writing books based on his own experiences, and yet he has to watch as white publishers flock to stories of the “authentic Black experience,” which only exploit misery and further stereotypes. When Monk suffers one too many setbacks, he lashes out in the way only a writer can – by writing his own exploitative,...
Wright stars as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, an English professor and a writer of critically acclaimed but low-selling book. Monk’s in a bad place at the beginning of the film; he’s on leave from his job after berating a student, and his latest book is being rejected by publishers as not being “Black enough.” This rightfully bothers Ellison, because he’s writing books based on his own experiences, and yet he has to watch as white publishers flock to stories of the “authentic Black experience,” which only exploit misery and further stereotypes. When Monk suffers one too many setbacks, he lashes out in the way only a writer can – by writing his own exploitative,...
- 12/20/2023
- by Chris Williams
- CinemaNerdz
The topic of race in America is a challenging one to discuss nowadays. On the one hand, you have various groups of non-white people who are exhausted trying to explain how racism runs rampant. Then, on the other hand, you have white people who are either racist, unable to discuss race because it’s uncomfortable, or both. That disconnect drives the humor and heart of the new film, “American Fiction.”
Read More: The 21 Best Films Of 2023
As seen in the trailer, “American Fiction” follows the story of a Black author who is sick of a society who only wants and expects “Black” stories.
Continue reading ‘American Fiction’ Trailer: Jeffrey Wright Stars In Cord Jefferson’s Acclaimed Comedy at The Playlist.
Read More: The 21 Best Films Of 2023
As seen in the trailer, “American Fiction” follows the story of a Black author who is sick of a society who only wants and expects “Black” stories.
Continue reading ‘American Fiction’ Trailer: Jeffrey Wright Stars In Cord Jefferson’s Acclaimed Comedy at The Playlist.
- 12/18/2023
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Exclusive: Laura Karpman was drip-fed jazz notes when she was a baby. Her mother’s turn-table featured a playlist that included Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Wes Montgomery and Thelonious Monk, the virtuoso pianist, whose music informs and underpins her own jazz-infused score for Cord Jefferson’s scorching American Fiction.
“So I remember in her painting studio, my mother had a record player and she would play everything,” Karpman recalls, and for good measure her mother would spin Beethoven’s violin concerto and a piece by Stravinsky.
Karpman lapped it all up, just as her mother had planned, because Mrs.Karpman had preordained “that I would be a composer when she was pregnant,” she tells me.
Her mother was a painter and sculptor “and she always, I think probably inappropriately, thought that music was the highest art. And so she wanted me to be an artist and she wanted me to be a musician.
“So I remember in her painting studio, my mother had a record player and she would play everything,” Karpman recalls, and for good measure her mother would spin Beethoven’s violin concerto and a piece by Stravinsky.
Karpman lapped it all up, just as her mother had planned, because Mrs.Karpman had preordained “that I would be a composer when she was pregnant,” she tells me.
Her mother was a painter and sculptor “and she always, I think probably inappropriately, thought that music was the highest art. And so she wanted me to be an artist and she wanted me to be a musician.
- 12/18/2023
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
’American Fiction’, ‘The Zone Of Interest’ open well in limited release.
Warner Bros’ musical Wonka starring Timothée Chalamet got off to an encouraging start at the North American box office as it brought in an estimated $39m from 4,203 locations.
The Willy Wonka origins story directed by Paul King from the Paddington franchise and produced by David Heyman from the Harry Potter series earned $14.4m on Friday, $14m on Saturday and $10.6m on Sunday.
It finished leagues ahead of the number two film, Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes on $5.8m for a solid $145.2m running total after five weekends.
Warner Bros’ musical Wonka starring Timothée Chalamet got off to an encouraging start at the North American box office as it brought in an estimated $39m from 4,203 locations.
The Willy Wonka origins story directed by Paul King from the Paddington franchise and produced by David Heyman from the Harry Potter series earned $14.4m on Friday, $14m on Saturday and $10.6m on Sunday.
It finished leagues ahead of the number two film, Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes on $5.8m for a solid $145.2m running total after five weekends.
- 12/18/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Searchlight Pictures’ Poor Things had a monster of an expansion, sewing up $1.3 million at just 82 theaters for a no. 10 spot at the weekend box office. American Fiction and The Zone of Interest, from, respectively, Amazon MGM Studios and A24, opened nicely as specialty films with original stories of all kinds are seeing traction with ticket buyers.
“Generally, I think you are seeing audiences coming back for these kind of films. And it’s a chicken and the egg – it’s the first time post-Covid where we have a had really good [flow] of adult movies in the marketplace,” said Kevin Wilson, head of theatrical distribution for Amazon MGM. It’s also great to see people “looking for an original film.”
Amazon MGM is coming off a specialty hit with Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn and a great run at its Alana Mayo-run Orion Pictures, behind American Fiction as well as raunchy teen comedy Bottoms,...
“Generally, I think you are seeing audiences coming back for these kind of films. And it’s a chicken and the egg – it’s the first time post-Covid where we have a had really good [flow] of adult movies in the marketplace,” said Kevin Wilson, head of theatrical distribution for Amazon MGM. It’s also great to see people “looking for an original film.”
Amazon MGM is coming off a specialty hit with Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn and a great run at its Alana Mayo-run Orion Pictures, behind American Fiction as well as raunchy teen comedy Bottoms,...
- 12/17/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Sterling K. Brown stars as Cliff Ellison in writer/director Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction An Orion Pictures Release
Photo credit: Claire Folger © 2023 Orion Releasing LLC. All Rights Reserved. The new film American Fiction is an adaptation of the novel Eraser, about a struggling author who writes a “stereotypically Black” book as a joke, only to see it become a huge hit that wins him wide acclaim. It was a passion project for first-time director Cord Jefferson, who also wrote the adapted screenplay. Sterling K. Brown, who appears in the film, spoke about Jefferson’s enthusiasm for the material was contagious, and it was an honor to be part of a project like this. (Click on the media bar below to hear Sterling K. Brown) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sterling_K_Brown_Script_American_Fiction_.mp3
American Fiction opens in theaters nationwide on December 22.
The post Sterling K.
Photo credit: Claire Folger © 2023 Orion Releasing LLC. All Rights Reserved. The new film American Fiction is an adaptation of the novel Eraser, about a struggling author who writes a “stereotypically Black” book as a joke, only to see it become a huge hit that wins him wide acclaim. It was a passion project for first-time director Cord Jefferson, who also wrote the adapted screenplay. Sterling K. Brown, who appears in the film, spoke about Jefferson’s enthusiasm for the material was contagious, and it was an honor to be part of a project like this. (Click on the media bar below to hear Sterling K. Brown) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sterling_K_Brown_Script_American_Fiction_.mp3
American Fiction opens in theaters nationwide on December 22.
The post Sterling K.
- 12/16/2023
- by Hollywood Outbreak
- HollywoodOutbreak.com
“American Fiction” cast members Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross and Erika Alexander opened up to TheWrap about their past experiences with racism in Hollywood, from being racially typecast to colorism and racial microagressions on set.
It’s pretty clear Hollywood still has a ways to go to tackle systemic racism — from “Oscars So White,” institutionalized racism that’s led to disparities in hiring and pay discrepancies between white people and people of color, to the recent exodus of Hollywood Dei executives.
While Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” stands as a comedy that highlights a struggling novelist and his family’s standard imperfections, beneath that plot, the film spotlights the limits that have historically been placed on Black stories. It also explores how Black creatives are fighting to provide a wide variety of Black narratives to the world.
That’s an experience Jefferson said he had himself just months before stumbling...
It’s pretty clear Hollywood still has a ways to go to tackle systemic racism — from “Oscars So White,” institutionalized racism that’s led to disparities in hiring and pay discrepancies between white people and people of color, to the recent exodus of Hollywood Dei executives.
While Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” stands as a comedy that highlights a struggling novelist and his family’s standard imperfections, beneath that plot, the film spotlights the limits that have historically been placed on Black stories. It also explores how Black creatives are fighting to provide a wide variety of Black narratives to the world.
That’s an experience Jefferson said he had himself just months before stumbling...
- 12/16/2023
- by Raquel 'Rocky' Harris
- The Wrap
The nominations for the 24th Annual Black Reel Awards are in. After close inspection, the black and gold Bolt award might seem to have a touch of purple on it as the classic Alice Walker novel, The Color Purple dominated the awards this year.
The film adaptation of the acclaimed musical, The Color Purple nearly double the number of the nearest competitor, Rustin, and set the mark for the most nominations for a musical. Blitz Bazawule’s stylish feature gathered him nominations for Outstanding Film, Outstanding Director and Outstanding Emerging Director. The cast received one Outstanding Lead Performance nomination for Fantasia Barrino, three Outstanding Supporting Performance nominations and three Outstanding Breakthrough Performance nominations. The musical also swept the musical and technical categories, receiving nominations in every one, except Outstanding Cinematography. Fantasia Barrino became the second American Idol contestant to receive a nomination for acting (Jennifer Hudson).
Colman Domingo received his...
The film adaptation of the acclaimed musical, The Color Purple nearly double the number of the nearest competitor, Rustin, and set the mark for the most nominations for a musical. Blitz Bazawule’s stylish feature gathered him nominations for Outstanding Film, Outstanding Director and Outstanding Emerging Director. The cast received one Outstanding Lead Performance nomination for Fantasia Barrino, three Outstanding Supporting Performance nominations and three Outstanding Breakthrough Performance nominations. The musical also swept the musical and technical categories, receiving nominations in every one, except Outstanding Cinematography. Fantasia Barrino became the second American Idol contestant to receive a nomination for acting (Jennifer Hudson).
Colman Domingo received his...
- 12/15/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Jonathan Glazer’s unusual Holocaust film The Zone Of Interest opens in four theaters in New York and LA today as Cord Jefferson’s satirical comedy American Fiction debuts in seven, the latest trenchant specialty offerings in a fall market full of strong titles as year-end approaches and the awards season clicks into high gear after Golden Globe nominations this week.
From A24, The Zone of Interest premiered at Cannes (Deadline review here), winning the Grand Prix, and the Fipresci Prize. The (actual) commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig strive to build a dream life for their growing family in a lovely villa and garden whose back wall abuts the concentration camp. The film opens with the family picnicking and frolicking on a lush riverbank, then trekking happily home.
From A24, The Zone of Interest premiered at Cannes (Deadline review here), winning the Grand Prix, and the Fipresci Prize. The (actual) commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig strive to build a dream life for their growing family in a lovely villa and garden whose back wall abuts the concentration camp. The film opens with the family picnicking and frolicking on a lush riverbank, then trekking happily home.
- 12/15/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison has hit his breaking point. The students in his Southern-lit class at the prestigious university he teaches at are oversensitive snowflakes. His superiors think he needs a break from academia. Monk’s novels may still be in print, but you wouldn’t know it; they’ve all been relegated to the bottom shelf of the “African-American Studies” section of chain bookstores, simply because he’s a Black author. (“The Blackest thing about these books are the ink!” he yells.) An illness and a tragedy send his already dysfunctional family into a tailspin.
- 12/15/2023
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
After working on series such as Succession and 2019’s Watchmen, Cord Jefferson has made his feature directorial debut with American Fiction, a satire-meets-family-drama that picked up the top audience award at Toronto International Film Festival and is now coming to theaters this holiday season. Following Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), a teacher and writer in a rut, he concocts an elaborate joke to get more fame and acceptance. It’s taken shocking seriously, setting off a series of misadventures exploring how white America is more willing to accept the most reductive, pandering stories of Black trauma versus something that rings holistically authentic.
Following its TIFF premiere and head of a release beginning this week, I spoke with Jefferson about the tonal balance of satire and comedy in the film, the varied range of influences, working with Jeffrey Wright and the incredible cast, collaborating with Rian Johnson, and more. Also, check...
Following its TIFF premiere and head of a release beginning this week, I spoke with Jefferson about the tonal balance of satire and comedy in the film, the varied range of influences, working with Jeffrey Wright and the incredible cast, collaborating with Rian Johnson, and more. Also, check...
- 12/14/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
‘Poor Things’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ followed with 13 nods each.
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie leads this year’s Critics Choice Award nominations with 18, breaking the record for most nominations ever for a single film.
The blockbuster is up for best picture, best director, best original screenplay and acting nods for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
Next in line is Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, which have 13 nominations each including best picture. American Fiction, The Color Purple, Killers Of The Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives and Saltburn round off the best picture cohort.
The nominations follow a similar pattern...
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie leads this year’s Critics Choice Award nominations with 18, breaking the record for most nominations ever for a single film.
The blockbuster is up for best picture, best director, best original screenplay and acting nods for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
Next in line is Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, which have 13 nominations each including best picture. American Fiction, The Color Purple, Killers Of The Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives and Saltburn round off the best picture cohort.
The nominations follow a similar pattern...
- 12/13/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Erika Alexander and Jeffrey Wright in American FictionPhoto: Claire Folger/Orion Releasing
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is a serious writer. He’s an academic, disdains “airport books” and best-selling colleagues, confronts his students, and is advised by his agent not to “insult anyone important.” In just a few scenes at the beginning of American Fiction,...
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is a serious writer. He’s an academic, disdains “airport books” and best-selling colleagues, confronts his students, and is advised by his agent not to “insult anyone important.” In just a few scenes at the beginning of American Fiction,...
- 12/13/2023
- by Murtada Elfadl
- avclub.com
During an appearance on The Tonight Show in 2022, Sterling K. Brown relayed an anecdote to Jimmy Fallon about one of the three times he’d found himself in the presence of none other than Meryl Streep.
“She’s just talking, being regular old Streep, and I’m like, ‘No, I can’t, I don’t know.’ I couldn’t talk. I just lurked. I was weird. I was a creeper,” admitted Brown.
When The Hollywood Reporter came face to face with the actor on Dec. 5 at the premiere of his latest film, Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, he had a new story to tell. Brown was fresh from the Academy Museum’s annual gala where he’d met his icon. “Fucking fantastic,” he said of the night. “To be in the presence of one of your heroes, oftentimes you’re disappointed, but she exceeded expectations. She told me she was...
“She’s just talking, being regular old Streep, and I’m like, ‘No, I can’t, I don’t know.’ I couldn’t talk. I just lurked. I was weird. I was a creeper,” admitted Brown.
When The Hollywood Reporter came face to face with the actor on Dec. 5 at the premiere of his latest film, Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, he had a new story to tell. Brown was fresh from the Academy Museum’s annual gala where he’d met his icon. “Fucking fantastic,” he said of the night. “To be in the presence of one of your heroes, oftentimes you’re disappointed, but she exceeded expectations. She told me she was...
- 12/12/2023
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“American Fiction” writer-director Cord Jefferson knew the best way to capture the strangeness of modern life was to adapt an ironic dark comedy novel.
Jefferson, whose Indie Spirit Award-nominated film is based on Percival Everrett’s novel “Erasure,” unpacked the timeless appeal of a story involving a highbrow Black novelist who parodies the perpetuation of racial stereotypes and unwittingly writes a hit novel.
IndieWire Honors recipient Jefferson and author Everett, as well as lead star Jeffrey Wright, detailed the making of “American Fiction” in an exclusive “Page to Screen” featurette courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.
“When I read the book, I felt the material deep in my bones,” Jefferson said. “So I knew almost immediately that I wanted to adapt it. There’s levity but also surprise. That to me is really keeping in essence with the book.”
Everett added, “As soon as I met Cord, it was clear that...
Jefferson, whose Indie Spirit Award-nominated film is based on Percival Everrett’s novel “Erasure,” unpacked the timeless appeal of a story involving a highbrow Black novelist who parodies the perpetuation of racial stereotypes and unwittingly writes a hit novel.
IndieWire Honors recipient Jefferson and author Everett, as well as lead star Jeffrey Wright, detailed the making of “American Fiction” in an exclusive “Page to Screen” featurette courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.
“When I read the book, I felt the material deep in my bones,” Jefferson said. “So I knew almost immediately that I wanted to adapt it. There’s levity but also surprise. That to me is really keeping in essence with the book.”
Everett added, “As soon as I met Cord, it was clear that...
- 12/12/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Sterling K. Brown, Jeffrey Wright, and Erika Alexander in ‘American Fiction’ (Photo credit: Claire Folger © 2023 Orion Releasing LLC)
American Fiction is one of the best films of 2023, with outstanding performances by the entire ensemble led by Emmy nominee Jeffrey Wright (Westworld). The drama marks Cord Jefferson’s debut as a feature film screenwriter and director, an auspicious start to, hopefully, a lengthy career.
Amazon Studios MGM hosted a press conference with Jefferson and his cast, including Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. Brown, Erika Alexander, John Ortiz, and Adam Brody, as American Fiction continues to generate awards season buzz. The packed panel discussed Jefferson’s script and why it’s important to engage in this topic of conversation right now.
On Accepting the Lead Role of Thelonious “Monk” Ellison:
Jeffrey Wright: “Cord sent me a wonderful invitation to this project. He sent me the script and he sent, along with that,...
American Fiction is one of the best films of 2023, with outstanding performances by the entire ensemble led by Emmy nominee Jeffrey Wright (Westworld). The drama marks Cord Jefferson’s debut as a feature film screenwriter and director, an auspicious start to, hopefully, a lengthy career.
Amazon Studios MGM hosted a press conference with Jefferson and his cast, including Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. Brown, Erika Alexander, John Ortiz, and Adam Brody, as American Fiction continues to generate awards season buzz. The packed panel discussed Jefferson’s script and why it’s important to engage in this topic of conversation right now.
On Accepting the Lead Role of Thelonious “Monk” Ellison:
Jeffrey Wright: “Cord sent me a wonderful invitation to this project. He sent me the script and he sent, along with that,...
- 12/12/2023
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
Bold Speeches from Auteurs and Comfy Couches: IndieWire Honors 2023 Is the Awards Show Like No Other
IndieWire Honors recognized some of the biggest movies and TV shows of the year last night, including “Barbie,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Beef,” and “John Wick: Chapter 4,” but the filmmakers’ speeches reflected how their current work couldn’t exist without the support they received early in their careers — much of it from IndieWire.
Todd Haynes, director of Netflix marquee title “May December,” accepted the Visionary Award with a memory of screening his breakout short “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story” to rave reviews before the cease-and-desists from her estate rolled in. Greta Gerwig, writer-director of Warner Bros. global blockbuster “Barbie” and recipient of the Auteur Award, recalled doing her very first interviews with Anne Thompson for her solo directorial debut “Lady Bird” at Telluride.
Lily Gladstone upped the ante: In receiving breakout the Performance Award for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” she used her time to talk about the...
Todd Haynes, director of Netflix marquee title “May December,” accepted the Visionary Award with a memory of screening his breakout short “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story” to rave reviews before the cease-and-desists from her estate rolled in. Greta Gerwig, writer-director of Warner Bros. global blockbuster “Barbie” and recipient of the Auteur Award, recalled doing her very first interviews with Anne Thompson for her solo directorial debut “Lady Bird” at Telluride.
Lily Gladstone upped the ante: In receiving breakout the Performance Award for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” she used her time to talk about the...
- 12/7/2023
- by Marcus Jones
- Indiewire
Jharrel Jerome in “I’m a Virgo” may play a 13-foot tall giant, but as he receives accolades for his performance during this awards season, he says it’s important to remember the “little moments” along the way. The 26-year-old star is starting to dream both big and small.
“When you become an actor, I feel like you forget to dream of these little moments here. You dream of the big screen, you dream of the flashing lights, you dream about the big red carpets and the photos, but you forget about the intimate moments like this, when you get into a room with artists who are as passionate as you,” Jerome said upon accepting the Performance Prize at the IndieWire Honors ceremony on December 6. He added that he didn’t know what to expect stepping into NeueHouse Hollywood for the occasion. But seeing the intimate space, he said, “this is dope.
“When you become an actor, I feel like you forget to dream of these little moments here. You dream of the big screen, you dream of the flashing lights, you dream about the big red carpets and the photos, but you forget about the intimate moments like this, when you get into a room with artists who are as passionate as you,” Jerome said upon accepting the Performance Prize at the IndieWire Honors ceremony on December 6. He added that he didn’t know what to expect stepping into NeueHouse Hollywood for the occasion. But seeing the intimate space, he said, “this is dope.
- 12/7/2023
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Cord Jefferson would love to stay and chat with his icons, but he’s in the midst of a long awards season and has to “talk to some strangers” about his debut feature “American Fiction.”
So upon accepting the Breakthrough Award at the IndieWire Honors ceremony on December 6 at NeueHouse Hollywood, he said he’s ducking out early not because he’s a “snob,” but because he cares deeply about his work and he wants to make sure he can keep meeting people he admires.
“I’m an artist, so I’m sensitive about my shit. That is 100 percent true. I am deeply insecure,” Jefferson said, quoting the singer Erykah Badu. “I’ve never directed anything before I made this movie, I’ve never written a movie before I made this movie. Putting it into the world is a vulnerable experience. It is something that I was terrified people were...
So upon accepting the Breakthrough Award at the IndieWire Honors ceremony on December 6 at NeueHouse Hollywood, he said he’s ducking out early not because he’s a “snob,” but because he cares deeply about his work and he wants to make sure he can keep meeting people he admires.
“I’m an artist, so I’m sensitive about my shit. That is 100 percent true. I am deeply insecure,” Jefferson said, quoting the singer Erykah Badu. “I’ve never directed anything before I made this movie, I’ve never written a movie before I made this movie. Putting it into the world is a vulnerable experience. It is something that I was terrified people were...
- 12/7/2023
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Cord Jefferson has had quite a week and it’s barely Wednesday.
The American Fiction writer-director spent Monday evening in San Francisco where he received the George Gund III Award for Virtuosity presented by one of his stars, John Ortiz, during the Sffilm Awards at the city’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Shortly after 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Jefferson received word that his feature directorial debut snagged five Spirit Award nominations including nods for feature, screenplay, lead performance for star Jeffrey Wright and supporting performance for both Sterling K. Brown and Erika Alexander.
By nightfall, Jefferson and his team of collaborators headed to Beverly Hills’ Samuel Goldwyn Theatre for the film’s red carpet premiere where the filmmaker was still trying to process the swirl. “I was preparing myself for the film to not get into the Toronto Film Festival. This is a year in which all the...
The American Fiction writer-director spent Monday evening in San Francisco where he received the George Gund III Award for Virtuosity presented by one of his stars, John Ortiz, during the Sffilm Awards at the city’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Shortly after 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Jefferson received word that his feature directorial debut snagged five Spirit Award nominations including nods for feature, screenplay, lead performance for star Jeffrey Wright and supporting performance for both Sterling K. Brown and Erika Alexander.
By nightfall, Jefferson and his team of collaborators headed to Beverly Hills’ Samuel Goldwyn Theatre for the film’s red carpet premiere where the filmmaker was still trying to process the swirl. “I was preparing myself for the film to not get into the Toronto Film Festival. This is a year in which all the...
- 12/6/2023
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On December 6, the 2023 IndieWire Honors ceremony will celebrate 11 filmmakers, creators, and actors for their achievements in creative independence. We’re showcasing their work with new interviews leading up to the Los Angeles event.
While Cord Jefferson had found much success as a TV writer on celebrated series like “Watchmen,” “The Good Place,” and “Succession,” his directorial debut “American Fiction” was borne of a time in which he felt adrift, unsure of if he was capable of anything more.
“I cried when they greenlit this movie,” the director told IndieWire. “I had faced so much rejection in television. I’d sold a number of TV shows, and developed a number of TV shows, and somewhere along the line of those shows, they were killed.”
As recently as three months before he came upon Percival Everett’s “Erasure,” the novel he adapted for his film, Jefferson said he suffered “the biggest blow of my professional career,...
While Cord Jefferson had found much success as a TV writer on celebrated series like “Watchmen,” “The Good Place,” and “Succession,” his directorial debut “American Fiction” was borne of a time in which he felt adrift, unsure of if he was capable of anything more.
“I cried when they greenlit this movie,” the director told IndieWire. “I had faced so much rejection in television. I’d sold a number of TV shows, and developed a number of TV shows, and somewhere along the line of those shows, they were killed.”
As recently as three months before he came upon Percival Everett’s “Erasure,” the novel he adapted for his film, Jefferson said he suffered “the biggest blow of my professional career,...
- 12/1/2023
- by Marcus Jones
- Indiewire
Welcome to Oscar Experts Typing, a weekly column in which Gold Derby editors and Experts Joyce Eng and Christopher Rosen discuss the Oscar race — via Slack, of course. This week, we discuss who might join the consensus top three in Best Director.
Christopher Rosen: Hello, Joyce! It’s Friday and we’ve reached the end of a banner week for Charles Melton — winner of supporting actor honors at the Gotham Awards and New York Film Critics Circle. But we’re not here to type about the ascendent “Riverdale” star and our favorite Reggie. Instead, it’s back to the Best Director race. The New York critics fired the starting gun on Thursday with their awards and, lo and behold, the Best Director frontrunner Christopher Nolan came away with the group’s prize. That was sort of seen as a surprise by some online — but I can only assume those who...
Christopher Rosen: Hello, Joyce! It’s Friday and we’ve reached the end of a banner week for Charles Melton — winner of supporting actor honors at the Gotham Awards and New York Film Critics Circle. But we’re not here to type about the ascendent “Riverdale” star and our favorite Reggie. Instead, it’s back to the Best Director race. The New York critics fired the starting gun on Thursday with their awards and, lo and behold, the Best Director frontrunner Christopher Nolan came away with the group’s prize. That was sort of seen as a surprise by some online — but I can only assume those who...
- 12/1/2023
- by Joyce Eng and Christopher Rosen
- Gold Derby
Though we aim to discuss a wide breadth of films each year, few things give us more pleasure than the arrival of bold, new voices. It’s why we venture to festivals and pore over a variety of different features that might bring to light some emerging talent. This year was an especially notable time for new directors making their stamp, and we’re highlighting the handful of 2023 debuts that most impressed us.
Below one can check out a list spanning a variety of different genres, and many are available to stream here. In years to come, take note as these helmers (hopefully) ascend.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson)
Raven Jackson’s directorial debut All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is a distillation of cinema to its purest form, a stunning patchwork of experience and memory. Daring in its formal gambits but universal for how it explores humanity’s connection with nature,...
Below one can check out a list spanning a variety of different genres, and many are available to stream here. In years to come, take note as these helmers (hopefully) ascend.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson)
Raven Jackson’s directorial debut All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is a distillation of cinema to its purest form, a stunning patchwork of experience and memory. Daring in its formal gambits but universal for how it explores humanity’s connection with nature,...
- 11/29/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Nicolas Cage is getting his long-awaited recognition for being a beacon of cinema over the course of his almost half-century-long career.
The Oscar-winning actor will be recognized with the Maria Manetti Shrem Lifetime Achievement Award for Acting during the 2023 Sffilm Awards, which will take place Monday, December 4 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
The award has been given out to actors such as Glenn Close, Kate Winslet, Robert Duvall, Robin Williams, and Adam Driver. Margot Robbie received the honor in 2022.
Cage appears in this year’s critically acclaimed dark comedy “Dream Scenario.” His classic films range from “Peggy Sue Got Married” to “Moonstruck,” “Face/Off” and “Con Air.” Cage previously has received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his work in “Leaving Las Vegas,” and later earned a second Academy Award nomination for his performance in “Adaptation.”
Cage additionally...
The Oscar-winning actor will be recognized with the Maria Manetti Shrem Lifetime Achievement Award for Acting during the 2023 Sffilm Awards, which will take place Monday, December 4 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
The award has been given out to actors such as Glenn Close, Kate Winslet, Robert Duvall, Robin Williams, and Adam Driver. Margot Robbie received the honor in 2022.
Cage appears in this year’s critically acclaimed dark comedy “Dream Scenario.” His classic films range from “Peggy Sue Got Married” to “Moonstruck,” “Face/Off” and “Con Air.” Cage previously has received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his work in “Leaving Las Vegas,” and later earned a second Academy Award nomination for his performance in “Adaptation.”
Cage additionally...
- 11/29/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Encountering Percival Everett’s Erasure was serendipitous for Cord Jefferson, as he saw many similarities between himself and the character of Monk. He knew he needed to write and direct the film adaptation, and discovered the perfect casting when he began reading it in the voice of Jeffrey Wright. He ran into some difficulty finding studios willing to take a “risk” on a comedic satire of how the establishment profits from offensive tropes in Black entertainment. Luckily, T-Street Productions and Orion Pictures were willing to back the first-time director and from there the hilariously insightful American Fiction was born.
Jeffrey Wright as Monk in American Fiction.
Deadline: How did you first find Percival Everett’s Erasure?
Cord Jefferson: I, like most people in the world, had a very terrible 2020. Besides just Covid, I had this really huge professional failure in my life that year where I thought I was very,...
Jeffrey Wright as Monk in American Fiction.
Deadline: How did you first find Percival Everett’s Erasure?
Cord Jefferson: I, like most people in the world, had a very terrible 2020. Besides just Covid, I had this really huge professional failure in my life that year where I thought I was very,...
- 11/28/2023
- by Ryan Fleming
- Deadline Film + TV
With the SAG-AFTRA strike officially in the rearview mirror, the Screen Actors Guild Awards are set to take take place on February 24, 2024. Last year, all four acting winners went on to prevail at the Academy Awards and the Best Film Ensemble champ, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” won Best Picture. Our current odds at Gold Derby have casts from “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Poor Things” and “The Color Purple” predicted to fill out this year’s ensemble lineup, but I’m here to make a case for another likely nominee you may not see coming: Cord Jefferson‘s “American Fiction.”
“American Fiction” is based on the 2001 novel, “Erasure,” by Percival Everett and showcases an overlooked author’s frustration with the entertainment industry’s exploitation of Black artists. The film slated for a December 15 release has received widespread acclaim for its masterful way of satirizing this issue without...
“American Fiction” is based on the 2001 novel, “Erasure,” by Percival Everett and showcases an overlooked author’s frustration with the entertainment industry’s exploitation of Black artists. The film slated for a December 15 release has received widespread acclaim for its masterful way of satirizing this issue without...
- 11/24/2023
- by Frank Foresta
- Gold Derby
One of the year’s buzziest titles is Orion’s American Fiction, the directorial debut from Emmy-winning Watchmen writer Cord Jefferson that has picked up accolades on the festival circuit, including the people’s choice award from the Toronto Film Festival (a major bellwether for the best picture race).
Based on Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, the film stars Jeffrey Wright as Monk Ellison, an underappreciated novelist frustrated with his career, the marketplace’s ideas of the kinds of books that Black writers should publish and the success of a “Black” novel that he believes flourishes in stereotypes. Following the sudden death of his sister (Tracee Ellis Ross), Monk returns home to care for his dementia-addled mother (Leslie Uggams). While dealing with his out-of-control brother (Sterling K. Brown) and sparking a relationship with a neighbor (Erika Alexander), Monk channels his frustrations into a pseudonymous novel, My Pafology, for which Monk...
Based on Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, the film stars Jeffrey Wright as Monk Ellison, an underappreciated novelist frustrated with his career, the marketplace’s ideas of the kinds of books that Black writers should publish and the success of a “Black” novel that he believes flourishes in stereotypes. Following the sudden death of his sister (Tracee Ellis Ross), Monk returns home to care for his dementia-addled mother (Leslie Uggams). While dealing with his out-of-control brother (Sterling K. Brown) and sparking a relationship with a neighbor (Erika Alexander), Monk channels his frustrations into a pseudonymous novel, My Pafology, for which Monk...
- 11/23/2023
- by Tyler Coates
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
After winning the People’s Choice Award at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), American Fiction is scheduled for theatrical release a few days before Christmas in December 2023. it will receive a limited theatrical release on December 15 before going wide on December 22. American Fiction is Cord Jefferson‘s directorial debut, having spent years as a writer, editor, essayist, and producer. American Fiction is based on Percival Everett‘s 2001 novel, Erasure. Jefferson’s American Fiction follows the life of a writer frustrated with Hollywood’s incessant black tropes in books and media. Using a pen name, he sets out to prove...
- 11/23/2023
- by Onyinye Izundu
- TVovermind.com
The premise of Glen A. Larson's 1978 sci-fi series "Battlestar Galactica" was high-concept and complex. It took place far from Earth, at the end of humanity's millennium-long war with a species of robots called the Cylons. The Cylons themselves were built by a long-extinct race of humanoid reptiles, and they seem poised to offer the same fate to humankind. Feeling that the writing was on the wall, a human named Count Baltar (John Colicos) betrayed humanity and sided with the Cylons, putting the robots hot on the trail of the Battlestar Galactica, a massive starship carrying most of the galaxy's last-known humans. Their goal is to find a long-lost "thirteenth tribe," a human colony that was said to have settled on a distant planet called Earth.
The assumption for viewers was that "Battlestar Galactica" was set in the distant future, but at the end of the 24th episode of its only season,...
The assumption for viewers was that "Battlestar Galactica" was set in the distant future, but at the end of the 24th episode of its only season,...
- 11/19/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
“This was three years ago, that I had a note from an executive on a script that I wrote that I needed to make a character ‘Blacker’,” director Cord Jefferson said at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles panel for American Fiction. “A lot of this is taken directly from my personal experience having worked in entertainment.”
Related: The Contenders Film: Los Angeles – Deadline’s Full Coverage
Jeffrey Wright, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross and Skyler Wright star in this scathing satire on the publishing industry and its treatment of serious works by Black writers. One of those writers is Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Wright). He travels back to his hometown of Boston to attend a book festival, but the turnout is low in favor of another book seminar with author Sinatra Golden’s (Rae) bestseller We Lives In Da Ghetto.
After finding Percival Everett’s Erasure in...
Related: The Contenders Film: Los Angeles – Deadline’s Full Coverage
Jeffrey Wright, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross and Skyler Wright star in this scathing satire on the publishing industry and its treatment of serious works by Black writers. One of those writers is Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Wright). He travels back to his hometown of Boston to attend a book festival, but the turnout is low in favor of another book seminar with author Sinatra Golden’s (Rae) bestseller We Lives In Da Ghetto.
After finding Percival Everett’s Erasure in...
- 11/18/2023
- by Ryan Fleming
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Jack Kilmer (Palo Alto), Paris Jackson (Gringo), and Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight) are in production in Atlanta on Open Wounds, an indie horror thriller from director Ronald Krauss (Gimme Shelter). Rounding out the cast of the pic are Lambert Houston (Resurrection Factor), Renata Notni (Zorro), Richie Radichi (My Best Friend’s Dead), and Jay Giannone (American Hustle).
Written by Ryan Leeder, Joshua Courtade, and Krauss, the film centers around a fading indie horror studio, its owner Jefferson (Roberts), and his nephew Caleb (Kilmer), a young horror movie obsessive and aspiring makeup f/x artist, who finally gets his “little break” when Jefferson assigns him to work on a B-list movie about a vampire (Notni). There, he encounters another makeup artist, Ginni (Jackson), with whom he feels he can share his vulnerabilities, as well as an unsupportive rival, Todd (Houston).
Caleb, insecure of his talent, and desperate to win Jefferson’s approval,...
Written by Ryan Leeder, Joshua Courtade, and Krauss, the film centers around a fading indie horror studio, its owner Jefferson (Roberts), and his nephew Caleb (Kilmer), a young horror movie obsessive and aspiring makeup f/x artist, who finally gets his “little break” when Jefferson assigns him to work on a B-list movie about a vampire (Notni). There, he encounters another makeup artist, Ginni (Jackson), with whom he feels he can share his vulnerabilities, as well as an unsupportive rival, Todd (Houston).
Caleb, insecure of his talent, and desperate to win Jefferson’s approval,...
- 11/16/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Photo credit: Sony Pictures
In “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” our hero Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is transported to a dimension where dozens of other Spider-heroes reside — or at least intersect like threads on a web.
There’s Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac), the leader of this Spider Society. His right hand is Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman (Issa Rae), who shares the same superhero name as Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld). You won’t confuse them though, as each hero has his/her own distinct character design and animation style.
Here’s a complete (and spoiler-free) “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” cast and character guide.
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Animation/Getty
Miles Morales/Spider-Man
Voiced by: Shameik Moore
Now 15-years-old, Miles is dealing with a lot of teenage issues: feeling isolated/lonely due to his secret life, college/career planning, and trying to be the best son he can. He resides on...
In “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” our hero Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is transported to a dimension where dozens of other Spider-heroes reside — or at least intersect like threads on a web.
There’s Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac), the leader of this Spider Society. His right hand is Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman (Issa Rae), who shares the same superhero name as Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld). You won’t confuse them though, as each hero has his/her own distinct character design and animation style.
Here’s a complete (and spoiler-free) “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” cast and character guide.
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Animation/Getty
Miles Morales/Spider-Man
Voiced by: Shameik Moore
Now 15-years-old, Miles is dealing with a lot of teenage issues: feeling isolated/lonely due to his secret life, college/career planning, and trying to be the best son he can. He resides on...
- 11/16/2023
- by Lawrence Yee
- The Wrap
The best moments of Merchant Ivory––a documentary directed by Stephen Soucy concerning the legendary production company––feel like their most-successful pictures: restrained and revealing at the same time. Mostly told chronologically and split into chapters with talking heads to drive the narrative, the film dutifully recounts the agony and ecstasy of Merchant Ivory Productions. Sections are devoted to producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and composer Richard Robbins. Dedicated crew members and stars sing their praises while softly criticizing their methods of madness, most of the latter directed at Merchant. Highlights include recollections of Merchant’s culling together funds for each production, often starting a film before all the money was put together. Or Jhabvala’s brutal judgment: Ivory recalls her dislike of Maurice from pre-production onward, all because the novel wasn’t, in her opinion, up to snuff. Somewhat ironically, Maurice is perhaps the...
- 11/13/2023
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Cord Jefferson didn’t always know he wanted to be a director. While working on Netflix’s comedy series “Master of None,” actor/writer/creator Aziz Ansari asked Jefferson out of the blue if he ever wanted to direct. Jefferson recalls, “I said, ‘No, I’ve never been to film school, I don’t know anything about cameras or lighting. I don’t think that’s for me.”
But Jefferson says Ansari’s response “planted the seed” for what would be a catalyst for him to tackle his directorial debut, “American Fiction,” based on the novel “Erasure.” “He said, ‘Dude, I went to NYU for business. I never went to film school. I’ve just been on sets and paid attention. All you need to do is hire people who understand the technical stuff and then be able to articulate what’s in your head.”
On this episode of the award-winning Variety Awards Circuit Podcast,...
But Jefferson says Ansari’s response “planted the seed” for what would be a catalyst for him to tackle his directorial debut, “American Fiction,” based on the novel “Erasure.” “He said, ‘Dude, I went to NYU for business. I never went to film school. I’ve just been on sets and paid attention. All you need to do is hire people who understand the technical stuff and then be able to articulate what’s in your head.”
On this episode of the award-winning Variety Awards Circuit Podcast,...
- 11/10/2023
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
It’s not homework, it’s “American Fiction.”
At first glance, writer-director Cord Jefferson’s satire about the exploitation of Black people in media might seem like another “message” movie offering difficult conversations around politics and race. Well, it is that — but it’s also funny. So funny, it just might be this year’s Oscar best picture winner.
Jefferson’s MGM-distributed debut is taking the festival circuit by storm. Since its world premiere at Toronto, where it won the People’s Choice Award — an Oscar bellwether — the film has also tacked on audience awards from regional festivals Mill Valley and Middleburg. The last two movies to win those three prizes were “Belfast” (2021) and “Green Book” (2018); both were Oscar nominated, and the latter took home best picture.
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.
Considering that “American Fiction” didn’t have a title...
At first glance, writer-director Cord Jefferson’s satire about the exploitation of Black people in media might seem like another “message” movie offering difficult conversations around politics and race. Well, it is that — but it’s also funny. So funny, it just might be this year’s Oscar best picture winner.
Jefferson’s MGM-distributed debut is taking the festival circuit by storm. Since its world premiere at Toronto, where it won the People’s Choice Award — an Oscar bellwether — the film has also tacked on audience awards from regional festivals Mill Valley and Middleburg. The last two movies to win those three prizes were “Belfast” (2021) and “Green Book” (2018); both were Oscar nominated, and the latter took home best picture.
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.
Considering that “American Fiction” didn’t have a title...
- 11/2/2023
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Ava DuVernay’s Origin and Matthew Heineman’s American Symphony were among the top winners at the Virginia Film Festival, the four-day Charlottesville event that ran from October 25-29.
Origin, based on Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, won the festival’s Audience Award for narrative feature. Heineman’s American Symphony, about musician Jon Batiste, was recognized for documentary feature.
Other Audience Award winners included Dreams of Home for narrative short and Black Godfather of Scuba for documentary short.
The winners of the Programmers’ Awards were American Fiction in the narrative category and No Ordinary Campaign in the documentary category. For the Moon was recognized in the narrative short category and 1-15-41 in the documentary short.
DuVernay also was recognized with the festival’s Visionary Award as she sat down for a post-screening Q&a with the Washington Post‘s Ann Hornaday.
Jon Batiste performs as...
Origin, based on Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, won the festival’s Audience Award for narrative feature. Heineman’s American Symphony, about musician Jon Batiste, was recognized for documentary feature.
Other Audience Award winners included Dreams of Home for narrative short and Black Godfather of Scuba for documentary short.
The winners of the Programmers’ Awards were American Fiction in the narrative category and No Ordinary Campaign in the documentary category. For the Moon was recognized in the narrative short category and 1-15-41 in the documentary short.
DuVernay also was recognized with the festival’s Visionary Award as she sat down for a post-screening Q&a with the Washington Post‘s Ann Hornaday.
Jon Batiste performs as...
- 11/2/2023
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
A release date has been set for February 2, 2024.
Curzon Film will release Cord Jefferson’s Toronto’s people’s choice award winner American Fiction in the UK and Ireland on February 2, 2024, in a deal done with Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios.
“Curzon Film will be involved across all areas of the theatrical release, in close collaboration with the US,” said a Curzon spokesperson of the awards hopeful.
The satire starring Jeffrey Wright and Tracee Ellis Ross is an adaptation of the novel Erasure by Percival Everett about a novelist who is frustrated with how the establishment profits from Black entertainment...
Curzon Film will release Cord Jefferson’s Toronto’s people’s choice award winner American Fiction in the UK and Ireland on February 2, 2024, in a deal done with Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios.
“Curzon Film will be involved across all areas of the theatrical release, in close collaboration with the US,” said a Curzon spokesperson of the awards hopeful.
The satire starring Jeffrey Wright and Tracee Ellis Ross is an adaptation of the novel Erasure by Percival Everett about a novelist who is frustrated with how the establishment profits from Black entertainment...
- 11/1/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" has worked its way into the hearts of fans across the country since it was released this June. The movie stars Miles Morales as he meets many different versions of Spider-Man (and Spider-Woman) who are trying to keep the Spider-Verse itself from breaking apart. Their leader, Miguel O'Hara (aka Spider-Man 2099), tells Miles that he's not supposed to be Spider-Man at all and that if he doesn't let his story follow some specific canon events (like the death of his dad), the universe will fall apart.
Fans will have to wait for the sequel, "Beyond the Spider-Verse," to arrive, but in the meantime, they've come up with a lot of theories for it. One of the most popular is that Gwen Stacy, aka Spider-Woman on Earth-65, is actually trans. And now, the beloved movie is streaming on Netflix, letting even more fans into this chaotic story...
Fans will have to wait for the sequel, "Beyond the Spider-Verse," to arrive, but in the meantime, they've come up with a lot of theories for it. One of the most popular is that Gwen Stacy, aka Spider-Woman on Earth-65, is actually trans. And now, the beloved movie is streaming on Netflix, letting even more fans into this chaotic story...
- 10/31/2023
- by Victoria Edel
- Popsugar.com
Gkids has released the new English language trailer for Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron.” Both the original Japanese and English language versions premiere in nationwide theaters on Dec. 8, following special preview engagements in New York and Los Angeles beginning on Nov. 22.
The trailer features a first look at vocal performances from Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson and Florence Pugh. The English-language dub was made in alignment with the SAG-AFTRA Foreign Dubbing Agreement.
The animated feature from Studio Ghibli was written and directed by Miyazaki, produced by Toshio Suzuki and features a musical score from Joe Hisaishi, a longtime collaborator of Miyazaki. Kenshi Yonezu wrote and performed the film’s theme song “Spinning Globe.” Miyazaki and Suzuki were co-founders of Studio Ghibli.
“The Boy and the Heron” first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 7.
See the full trailer below.
The trailer features a first look at vocal performances from Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson and Florence Pugh. The English-language dub was made in alignment with the SAG-AFTRA Foreign Dubbing Agreement.
The animated feature from Studio Ghibli was written and directed by Miyazaki, produced by Toshio Suzuki and features a musical score from Joe Hisaishi, a longtime collaborator of Miyazaki. Kenshi Yonezu wrote and performed the film’s theme song “Spinning Globe.” Miyazaki and Suzuki were co-founders of Studio Ghibli.
“The Boy and the Heron” first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 7.
See the full trailer below.
- 10/30/2023
- by Jazz Tangcay, Caroline Brew and Jaden Thompson
- Variety Film + TV
The relationship between art and commerce has always been a prickly one for creative people. Making a living — a good living — in an artistic field requires skill and talent, yes, but it more often than not also requires the artist to tailor their work to popular trends or to stifle one's own thornier aspects to satisfy a mass audience. Now, when I say "mass audience," what this invariably means is a mass white audience. Just as heterosexual people are seen as the baseline norm of the sexual spectrum, white people are seen as the baseline norm when it comes to cultural consumption. For a piece of art to be considered widely successful, it is that white audience that movie studios, record labels, and book publishers so desperately want, and anything beyond that is basically just thought of as found money.
For Black artists, connecting with that lucrative audience poses even more challenges.
For Black artists, connecting with that lucrative audience poses even more challenges.
- 10/30/2023
- by Mike Shutt
- Slash Film
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