Review 710: American Fiction

  

Bold, riotously funny and bitingly topical, American Fiction is arguably the best satire on race in recent years.

Based on the novel, Ensure by Percival Everett, Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) is a novelist-professor based in LA who wants to be intellectually free and write from that perspective. His novels receive academic praise but sell poorly  When he discovers Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), a Black author getting loads of media attention, he becomes very jelous of her success and writes a joke novel titled My Pafology which mocks all the literary cliches expected from Black writers: melodramatic plots, deadbeat dads, gang violence and drugs under the pseudonym, Stagg R. Leigh, a faceless, wanted fugitive. What Monk intended to be as a huge release of frustation and a middle finger to the publishing world, becomes high in demand from publishing companies and propels him to heart of hypocricy and madness he claims to despise.

American Fiction is at its core a satire on race in America. This is a film loaded with sharp dialogue and gags like you wouldn't believe. What's amazing about this film is depth of it's satire and how much it gets away with. There is also this undercurrent of a family story in this upper middle class Black family as we see with Monk's family. After an untimely family tradgedy, Monk is forced to look after his mother who has Altzheimers disease. The rifts between his sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross), a doctor and his brother Clifford (Sterling K. Brown) only add to Monk's frustations about the acclaim of his joke novel.

It also deals with the life of an artist in how Monk navigates the conditions under which his novel has become and his personal demons. 

Cord Jefferson makes an impressive debut, deftly handling the films various subject matters with the lightest touch. In lesser hands, this film would be painfully unfunny yet thanks Jefferson's smart screenwriting it manges to smart, thoughtful and hilarious. This deft writing and infectious sense of humor lends the film a great sense of pacing. The score by Laura Karpman is indlible; a wonderfully jazzy sound that compliments the films themes and humor. The cinematography is terrifc, the costumes are stunning, the effect of the closing sequence is exhilerating.

I never thought I'd see the day where Jeffrey Wright plays a foul-mouthed novelist-professor, but he plays one so well. He's clearly an intelligent man (as we learn he went to Harvard) and a talented writer but his pride and temper get in the way. He's a published author but not renowned, and is struggling to sell his latest work to a publisher. He only ever intends My Pafology to be a joke, a release of resentment only for it to be a bestseller. Wright successfully brings Monk's struggles to cope with his newfound acclaim  He's often rude a patronising to a needless degreee but Wright embues him with so much charisma that it's hard not to root or even empathise with him. In the end, he becomes the cliche he was mocking.

Sterling K. Brown also does fine work playing Monk's brother Clifford. Brown and Wright share a strong brotherly chemistry throughout the film and

She's only in a handful of scenes but Issa Rae scertainly makes an impression playing Sintara Golden. Sintara has found success where Monk hasn't, which him jelous of her. Whereas Sintara embraces this particular type of black culture, Monk rejects it  Rae brings dignity and

Erika Alexander also makes an impression playing Coraline, Thelonious' love interest. Throughout the film, Coraline acts as Monk's conscience,   

Adam Brody is also a standout playing Wiley Valdespino, a producer seeking to adapt Monk's work.

Tracee Ellis Ross is also terrific but barely in film as Thelonious' doctor sister; her scenes acting opposite Wright bring out a sensitive to him

4.5/5

The Anonymous Critic.