Between the Temples 4 stars

I happened to accidentally find one of the better comedies of the festival with director Nathan Silver’s Between the Temples. Jewish Cantor Ben (Jason Schwartzman of Rushmore and The Darjeeling Limited) has a lot on his mind. It has been a year since his wife died tragically and he is living with his two moms (Caroline Aaron and Dolly de Leon (who was brilliant as the Philippino worker on the doomed luxury yacht in Triangle of Sadness). He is depressed and is unable to sing in temple. And one of his mothers is trying to set him up on dates. But he is still guiding his bat mitzvah students as they prepare their studies. Then he gets a new student in Carla (a hilarious Carol Kane (Annie Hall and Taxi)), a widowed woman in her seventies who never had her bat mitzvah before and wants to correct that omission. Only there is something familiar about her as Ben remembers her as his music teacher when he was a boy. So Ben must navigate this new situation while not fully revealing the circumstances to all the interested parties. It’s a sweet screwball comedy with perfect leads in Schwartzman and Kane. I found it similar in style to Moonstruck especially when it came to a certain dinner scene with all the characters gathered together. The director and writers were present for Q & A and told how a real story provided the idea for the movie’s premise. We also learned that they did three versions of the final scene over two days. Nathan Silver is an accomplished director with many credits only I was unfamiliar with his movies. Maybe I will see more of them now.

American Fiction                               5 stars

From first time director Cord Jefferson comes the satirical comedy American Fiction, an  adaptation of the novel Erasure. This sharp-witted movie takes on the subject of the publishing world’s pandering to white guilt with the publishing of Black authors’ works that feature the worst in Black stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright who is known for his many supporting roles such as Dr. Narcisse from Boardwalk Empire and Bernard from Westworld gets the lead role as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a professor and intellectual writer whose books do not sell well. His agent (John Ortiz) wants him to write more “Black”, but Monk wants nothing to do with writing in a ghetto style which is what the successful Black authors are doing, such as the writer Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), who is making the talk show circuit with her new book “We’s Lives in Da Ghetto”. The book is very popular with white audiences, but Monk despises such work. But then after some devastating events in his family, out of frustration Monk sets out to write something portraying the worst in drug abuse, family conflict, rappers and cops killing Black men. He calls it “My Pafology” and his agent is taken aback by it. They both decide to try marketing it to publishers and are surprised when they are eager to publish this very gritty work. (Monk uses a pseudonym, “Stagg R. Leigh” in order to maintain his anonymity.) The publisher offers an advance greater than he has ever seen before. Further, Monk has to take on a fake persona as a street talking ex-con when being interviewed to give him more street cred. When talking with a movie producer (Adam Brody) he is offered even more money for the movie rights. (The producer is bragging about his new film, “Plantation Annihilation”.) Monk is disgusted by all of this but since he needs the money he goes along with it. Wright is completely convincing as the intellectual Monk, but is also good with the family scenes. He is dealing with a mother (Leslie Uggams) with Alzheimer’s disease, a less than responsible brother, Clifford, who has recently come out as gay (Sterling K. Brown) and a new girlfriend, the neighbor across the street (Erika Alexander). This story line helps to make Monk’s character seem that much more real as he must deal with these various crises. The movie is made completely real based on the acting ability of Wright who can register his character’s feelings with the expressions on his face. I have always been a fan of his since Boardwalk Empire where I first saw him. He (and Paul Giamatti as another unsuccessful writer in The Holdovers) are completely deserving of the Best Actor Academy Award nominations they received. Cord Jefferson has created a movie that must be seen. The movie has been nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture.

The American Society of Magical Negroes             2 stars

The American Society of Magical Negroes by screenwriter/director Kobi Libii has one of the oddest titles I have seen in years. I heard of the movie at Sundance Film Festival where it was first screened this year but didn’t see it then. It was just released so I took it in at a local theater and I have to say the premise is just as odd as the title. In the movie we learn that there is a secret organization of Black people whose mission it is to rescue white people in America who feel uncomfortable around black people. The society has existed since before the American Revolution and its members have magic powers that allow them to detect this feeling in white people and track them throughout the country. They occupy a secret section at Monticello and can transport themselves in an instant. This idea of Magical Negroes was first expressed by director Spike Lee in reference to movies that have fictional black characters that support white people, such as Driving Miss Daisy and The Green Mile. Lee found this concept to be offensive and I find I agree with that view. The movie is considered to be a satirical comedy and ultimately counters the whole magical negro concept but takes forever to get there. As far as the story goes, it concerns a young Black man, Aren (Justice Smith) who is an artist and always seems to be apologizing around white people. A member of the Society, Roger (David Alan Grier) watches him, rescues him from some white thugs and recruits him into the Society. There, he learns of the mission, how Black people can be saved by their rescuing of white people from their own feelings through compliments and encouragement. Aren gets an assignment to help a young white man at a tech company, so gets a job there as a designer. But the plot loses its way as it turns into more of a rom com with a love triangle involving a young woman within the startup company. After a while I found the movie boring. I thought maybe this would have worked better as a short instead of as a two-hour movie. Though it was meant as satire, I still found the whole view to be racist and demeaning to Black people. While I was at Sundance, I had heard that Black audience members at the premier largely felt this way as well. The film falls flat and I don’t look for the film to gain much popularity.