American Fiction

Grade: B+

Famous established authors must have a dilemma between the stories they really want to write, and the ones that they “should” put out there. The potboilers that they know will push all the right buttons and make publishers happy. Writer/director Cord Jefferson brings a delightful feature film debut to the table with American Fiction, based on the 2001 novel Erasure. It’s a sharp, witty script – one of the year’s best.

Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is a frustrated novelist, whose main gig these days is a college professor. His publisher, always pressing him for that next book, basically tells Monk that his novels aren’t “black” enough. This, along with seeing the success of a piece (that he thinks is stereotypical drivel) by a rival novelist, prompts him to quickly churn out the “blackest” story he can think of, under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh. He does it almost as a joke, but it spreads like wildfire and becomes a huge hit – inspiring white critics to use words/phrases like “important” and “necessary for the times.”

I appreciated the multi-faceted plot. While so many films are about its one main thing and little to nothing else, American Fiction always has a few balls in the air. In the midst of the bit about the book, there is death, sibling rivalry, and romances in various stages. My personal Best Supporting Actor roster is crowded already, but maybe they can find room for Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.) as Monk’s gay, cocaine snorting, recently divorced brother Cliff – my favorite performance in the movie. As Monk, Jeffrey Wright (Rustin, Asteroid City, and Colin Powell in Oliver Stone’s W.) shines in what’s sure to be a significant achievement of his career. He carries the film, and it’s really two performances, as we see when he puts on the Stagg R. Leigh persona.

It will be interesting to see and hear how this will sit with people. In the audience at the showing I attended, somebody who looks like me was a minority. That group laughed at certain bits that I didn’t, and vice versa. I had some audible reactions to parts that didn’t seem to land with others there. American Fiction will hit different people in different ways. I experienced that first hand. I like how I got it. You will get it your own way.

Grade: B+