MARK JUDGE: A welcome end to superhero movies.

I recently went to the movies, where I was confronted on the screen by minor miracles: two well-crafted films that are smart, brave, and aimed at adults. And they have nothing to do with superheroes.

The films are The Holdovers and American Fiction. The Holdovers  is about the relationship that develops between three people who are left stranded at an expensive private school for Christmas. The second film, American Fiction, didn’t play, but the trailer did. That was enough to leave the jaws of those seated around me on the floor.

With what looks like brutal satire, American Fiction tackles the phenomenon of white elites in the media, academia, and publishing world who satisfy their own egos by making black authors sound more “street” and “authentic” at the expense of more gifted black writers. It’s a savage takedown of the condescension liberalism holds toward black people.

The best part is neither film felt the need to insert the superficial action and predictable plot that too often accompanies the superhero genre. “Lackluster storytelling and the gatekeeping of interconnected story arcs have led to superhero fatigue,” movie critic Brandon Towns recently wrote.

So it’s possible for Hollywood to make films for grownups that aren’t sequels or part of an enormous franchise? As far back as 2011, Hollywood producer Lynda Obst tracked her industry’s obsession for endless remaking the same product in her book Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business:

UPDATE: The trailer for American Fiction is absolutely brilliant. As Steve Hayward writes, “If this film turns out to be as good as this trailer, I can’t wait to see the liberal film reviewers fall all over themselves denouncing it, even though it was written and directed by a black filmmaker (Cord Jefferson). Takeaway line from the trailer: ‘The dumber I behave the richer I get.’”

(Updated and bumped.)