Local cinemas come in handy when your trying to collect oscar films, & my closest cinema showing this for cineworld was crawley so it was worth spending the £7 on to go see. So yea lets go see this. After watching American Fiction im one away from completing the best picture nominees for 2024. hehe

At the studio screen of my local cinema its hard to work out how many people are on the film due to the balcony, but the top half had about 20 people in it. I was one of the youngest people in there for sure.

Trailers, lots for national theatre & whats on at the Connaught soon, which was a shame. But we also had trailers for Wicked Little Letter & One love. I think that was it. It was so much about their theatres & whats on this week more than actual film adverts.

& then the film started… is this an Iannucci?

Seriously, it was so funny & satirical that i genuinely when i left the cinema had to check on letterboxd that it wasnt on of his films. Its not, but it was in that style. I do understand that it is the point, but it just worked & was so clever in its way.

Now i get the point that the film is to show that white people want to read black black stories (thats not me saying it, the film says that from the start that this is the point) but i think part of that was missed on the rather older posher worthing people watching it. Because me & the 4 millennials 2 rows in front of me laughed & got all the in jokes while the rest of the room sat there silent & it was like hang on what arent they getting. They missed out on some amazing jokes, that just went over their head. So much so that the people the row behind me left the screening just before me & said, well i dont see how they can class that as a comedy… what the hell. urgh.

Jeffery was so good. Considering hes not often the main lead in a lot of films & it the main supporting character, he bossed it. You just watched his life spiral out of control in lots of different ways but it just worked & it was a pleasure to watch. Especially when he tried to be more street & black. When he wanted to change the books name & theres that phone conversation, its insane & crazy. I loved it but it proved a point.

The last scene in the movie was so good, i was wondering how they were going to wrap it up but then to do it like that was the perfect way. That conversation, the realisation of reality & then to just after all of that see that extra & prove that not everything has been solved proved an amazing point. I didnt see that coming but i loved it so much.

There was one point where the characters came to life to act out what he was writing so i thought we were going to get a lot more stuff like that but we didnt. I felt a bit sad at that because that was so good. Especially when hes like nah they wouldnt speak like that & they reply back to him. Maybe a bit more of the writing process would have been good to see. Thats two films in a row which have been linked to writing. Its almost like cinema is shouting at me to get the lap top out.

The whole point was showing he wasnt black enough & then when you looked at his life, other than a couple of things, he actually wasnt. From the contract, his job, his judging, his family & his relationships. IT proved he was this but that he was just a person. The film was so good at getting that across by ramping up the craziness of the rest of it. I mean how many houses did that family have, & then they still struggled to pay stuff. Seriously. I get it but still.

There is a break up scene, now that was good & so well acted & i didnt see it coming. I loved it. But there were some really lovely tender moments that were sad & beautiful as well. Especially with his mum & sister(that hurt). Makes you realised you should just care & look after everyone while you have them. I mean i know i do have them still but its just so sweet & poignant.

This film deserves its run at awards season. ITs just been so poorly advertised here, more people need to know about it & watch it because if they do they will be talking about this for quite a while, well past this years oscars.