Review: American Fiction (2023)

American Fiction

Rating

Director

Cord Jefferson

Screenplay

Cord Jefferson

Length

1h 57m

Starring

Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Raymond Anthony Thomas, Okieriete Onaodowan

MPAA Rating

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Review

There is no end of themes for Black filmmakers in their fight for equality and while a look at the racists in America is a common theme, so too is the unintentional racism of white people when they are helpful in the most destructive way possible. American Fiction specifically looks at the kind of literature that panders to its white audience while providing an unrealistic depiction of the myriad obstacles Black Americans face.

The film opens with Monk Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) sitting before his literature class going toe-to-toe with a white student who objects to the word “Nigger” written on the board. She finds it disrespectful while Monk finds it tedious. This segues into Monk being forced to take time off before having to deal with his mother’s (Leslie Uggams) Alzheimer’s diagnosis after the sudden death of his sister (Tracee Ellis Ross) while his recently-out brother (Sterling K. Brown) flames out.

As a writer, his books have never sold well but the arrival of an upstart author (Issa Rae) at first irritates him but later inspires him to write a new book that employs the awful slang and callous stereotypes that define the types of novels white buyers will snap up. His next novel, while at first an attempt to mock the very movement he detests, becomes a wildly popular effort that publishers are dying to throw copious money at and filmmakers want to make movies of. He’s forced to come to terms with the tripe he’s authored and decide if being popular and financially stable is worth the reputational damage he would suffer.

Writer-director Cord Jefferson adapts Percival Everett’s novel Erasure into a solid debut that is almost as problematic as its subject matter. While castigating white publishers and readers for buying outlandish depictions of Black lives, the film also celebrates such notions. Monk may go into the venture kicking and screaming but he still goes, a commentary on the narrow boxes Black Americans have to crawl into in order to be taken seriously by white audiences while feeding prejudicial stereotypes simultaneously.

None of these characters fit the stereotypes, which is what keeps the film from settling into its own self-referential flow but by becoming that which it attacks, it inadvertently makes the opposite point the filmmaker intends. There is a scene with Issa Rae’s Sintara Golden where the film tries to get itself out of the corner into which it’s painted itself but the moment doesn’t quite ring true. Sintara has published a novel similar to that of Monk’s and while they both agree that Monk’s novel is tripe, she immediately jumps to the defense of her own novel. That’s the type of 180-degree turn that white audiences make when trying to defend racist and semi-racist depictions.

American Fiction makes its point effectively and while some audiences aren’t going to miss it, they might miss the double-standard imposed by the film. That’s because it’s so incredibly well acted. Wright delivers a career-high performance while Uggams, Brown, Rae, Ross, and many others turn in laudable work. These actors keep the film feeling grounded and honest allowing the audience to forgive many of the flaws in the narrative’s thematic execution.

American Fiction is best encapsulated by a scene between Wright and his then-girlfriend (Erika Alexander) who has loved both his more serious novels and the stereotypical work he created in jest. It’s proof that audiences don’t have to hate one to love the other, they can essentially love both the well-meaning and the well-written without feeling ashamed of that appreciation. Literature and film has to be acceptable to all types of readers but doesn’t have to be approved of by everyone. Sometimes, a film like American Fiction can be revered for what it does right and forgiven for what it does wrong because, in the end, it’s a well made comedy that amuses as often as it educates.