Cube Critics discuss 'American Fiction' and 'Poor Things'

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MPR News producer Matt Alvarez enters.

MPR News arts reporter Jacob Aloi: Matt Alvarez. Now take your time.

MPR News arts editor Max Sparber: No hurry.

Aloi: We’re just kind of chillin’.

Sparber: Chillaxing.

Aloi: I want to be so clear: Never say that again.

So, Max Sparber, this week I saw “American Fiction” starring Jeffrey Wright. It’s actually based on a novel, which I did not know. It’s a meta-novel called “Erasure.” And it tells the story of a writer named Monk. He’s also a professor of mythology and writing. And basically, Monk cannot get published.

He has had a career publishing retellings of Greek stories, but he hasn’t been published in the last couple of years. And the reason why is because he feels like he’s being pigeonholed as a Black writer.

He feels like he’s being pushed to write stories about a very particular kind of experience in the Black community when he’s from an affluent Bostonian family. Right? He feels like he’s being pushed to write stories about gangs and gang violence and all of that.

And so one night in a drunken stupor he writes that book, and he kind of skewers it, he kind of writes it in to say, “I’m going to write the book that white America wants me to write.” And of course, it actually does very well gets published and is nominated for awards.

And that’s a huge part of the story. What really the movie is, is a character study of a man who’s deeply dissatisfied with his life, and he’s taking it out on everyone else. But through the course of the film, writing the book, his experiences with publishers, dating a woman, a death in his family, it’s really about him trying to find that spark for life again, that hopefully he can finally write his magnum opus.

So that is “American Fiction.” Check it out in theaters now.

Sparber: Funny?

Aloi: Very funny, but also poignant.

Sparber: That’s true of the film that I saw as well. I did not see it this week. It is called “Poor Things.” And it’s been out for a minute, and I saw it a couple of weeks ago, but it won a couple of Golden Globes this week, including Emma Stone as Best Actress, and that makes it freshly contemporary. It will probably do well at the Oscars.

It was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, who is a big Oscar winner already. And I would describe this film as being sort of a feminist cyberpunk Frankenstein fantasy in which Stone plays a child-woman who was created by a mad scientist, she goes out and has adventures.

The film is presented as being sort of feminist. I don’t know if it’s good feminism, but I do know it’s weird feminism, like “Barbie,” which I do like.

Emma Stone is great in it. She has a huge character arc from being basically a child at the beginning of the movie to being fully in possession of her own experiences by the end of it. It’s two and a half hours. So it gives her a lot of time to do that.

But the two things I like most about the film, first of all, is Mark Ruffalo. He plays just the most embarrassing libertine in history. He talks about freedom. But the moment he starts going out with Emma Stone, he becomes pathetic, needy, controlling. The moment she asserts herself, he’s just a blubbering mess.

The second thing is I like whoever the makeup designer was, who was told Willem Dafoe, who plays the mad scientist, should look like he’s dissembled and maybe broken puzzle for a face — but he should also look exactly like Willem Dafoe.

That person nailed it and probably should win an Oscar as well. It’s still in theaters. If you want to get ready for the Oscar season, go see it.