Written by: Cord Jefferson
Starring: Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody
Rating: [4/5]
Finding the right story for the right audience remains the name of the game in the world of publishing. An author can tell a great story but if it has no audience then the chances of it getting published dwindle and as much as authors want to dictate what said audience wants to consume, they ultimately have no control and must acquiesce. We see this frustration bear out in a hilarious manner in American Fiction where we have a writer jokingly trying to appease what audiences want and unexpectedly creates quite the hit.
Despite his excellent writing, Dr. Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) fails to get the sales needed through the publishing of his books. While at a book conference he sees a fellow Black author, Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) receive plaudits for her latest novel that he feels plays into a dumbed down version of the African American experience that demeans rather than uplifts. Disillusioned by the reality of what type of books consumers want to read about being Black, in a drunken stupor he writes something intentionally dumb in his mind and to his surprise, people love it.
Having so much on its mind, American Fiction packs quite the punch in how it delivers the central premise and the way Blackness gets defined and what version of it feels palatable to audiences, white audiences in particular. An anger and frustration sits on the surface of this film and never really goes away throughout as we follow Monk and how he continues to feel flabbergasted at how this entire circumstance plays out for him. This anger gets pointed all around not just to audiences, but individuals in the publishing industry and entertainment as a whole in the way they placate and fail to challenge what Monk believes sits firmly as a dumbing down of his culture and these elements well and truly shine.
In crafting this story he feels sits beneath him, Monk delivers the most stereotype-laden piece of work under a pseudonym that gets the attention of everyone, especially publishers who would not give him a time of day when he wrote more intellectually stimulating books. It displays what version of the Black experience white audiences seek to digest through their consumption of fictional storytelling. They do not care about Black characters who think in an enlightened way but rather want those about struggling Black mothers as seen in Sintara’s book and Black men engaging in crime and not having fathers as seen in Monk’s book. This push and pull between Monk fighting off this reality for so long and then acquiescing it for familial purposes really sums up many industries and strikes the chord that writer/director Cord Jefferson sought to strike.
While Monk deals with the potential lucrative opportunity of this book, he must also contend with a mother battling a potentially degenerative disease, which reconnects him with his siblings as they hash out some harmful elements of their past regarding their father. This element of the story, as many have agreed, does feel a bit undercooked and at times takes away from the A-plot that carries much more intrigue. Yes, we get some fun moments sprinkled in there, including everything Sterling K. Brown did as Monk’s brother Cliff but every time we panned over to his section of the story it left me wanting for more of the plot surrounding the book because it had much more to say in that particular realm.
Stepping into some well-deserved spotlight, American Fiction gives Jeffrey Wright the opportunity to lead a film and he does a splendid job in doing so. Often delivering impeccable supporting character work, Wright steps in and displays his talent in full force as the prickly but undoubtedly talented and intelligent Monk. The way he makes much of the comedy offered through this film stick simply does wonders as he goes from his typical self and then acting out as the pseudonym as he and his agent decide to milk this book opportunity for as much as they can. Seeing the way he continually reacts as publishers and filmmakers throw themselves at him for the opportunity to tell this raw and honest story genuinely never got old and it makes me so glad Wright got this chance to display he could lead a movie of this size and do so well.
Giving the audience plenty to chew on, American Fiction seeks to both entertain but also skewer audience members who perpetuate the very issue brought up within the narrative. It does so through a complex character in Monk, who must decide whether he in all actuality sells his soul for the purposes of making a mighty profit off this joke of a book in his eyes. Doing so would make him no better than the individuals he has criticized in the past, further placing himself in the battle of art vs. commerce. Sitting on the side of art for art’s sake comes much easier when independently wealthy and not in need of profit, but as this film shows, when push comes to shove getting the money where it comes from matters more.
Films with Josh 
