‘American Fiction’ Movie Review [AFI Fest 2023]: Cord Jefferson’s American Satire Has Laughs, But Its Message Falls Short
Photo from Claire Folger/Orion Pictures
From Jeff Nelson
American Fiction made quite the impact at its Toronto International Film Festival world premiere, where it won the coveted People’s Choice Award. It’s a major crowdpleaser that aims for big laughs, but it doesn’t quite satisfy when it comes to the social commentary within this American satire.
Author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) is pushed into mandatory time off from his job as a university professor after a heated exchange with a student. His frustration with the literary world grows to new heights when it comes to the contemporary cannon of Black storytelling that rests on racial stereotypes that cater to white liberal audiences. Monk jokingly writes his own contribution to the market under a pen name, which spirals out of control.
Writer/director Cord Jefferson’s adaptation of Percival Everett’s “Erasure” speaks on multiple racial debates within the liberal world of literature. What constitutes a “Black story” and who gets to determine what that looks like? Monk lashes out his frustration on those around him, including a best-selling author named Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), who wrote the book “We’s Lives In Da Ghetto.” He prides himself on steering clear of certain lived experiences that he deems exploitative, desperately wanting to put his own perspective into the world, although there doesn’t appear to be a market for it.
Monk intentionally drifted away from his family, which we discover is full of life and drama in equal measure. American Fiction follows a man learning about his family and their struggles, including his overworked sister (Tracee Ellis Ross) and his brother (Sterling K. Brown), who recently came out as gay and grapples with the family’s acceptance. The familial relationships are intriguing, although the queer sub-plot falls into unfortunately haphazard tropes, only to pursue unearned emotional swings.
Wright brings a strong lead performance as Monk, effortlessly navigating the character’s sense of humor and dramatic woes. He has robust chemistry with Erika Alexander, who plays a new love interest in Coraline. Other supporting players build out a tremendous cast in Ross as Sintara and Brown as Cliff. The characters are a bit underwritten, but the ensemble successfully provides each of these roles with depth.
American Fiction is a heavy-handed crowdpleaser that asks engrossing questions on what defines lived experiences in storytelling, but it’s afraid to dig any deeper into the very reality this satire judges contemporary media for ignoring. It’s all tied up a little too neatly, turning a blind eye to the uncomfortable places it nudges us toward. Wright commands the screen and several comedic gags land, but the social commentary it seeks to champion is only partially formed.
Rating: 2.5/5
American Fiction played AFI Fest 2023 on October 29th, 2023, before hitting limited theaters on December 15th, 2023, and expanding on December 22nd, 2023.
