Jeffrey Wright delivers as an author catering to the audience of their stereotypical needs.
When it comes to racial satires like “Bamboozled,” “Dear White People” or “Sorry to Bother You,” it all depends on how the targets are seen and how they’re portrayed. Sometimes, it can be offensive, sometimes, it can be poetic, sometimes, it can be funny, and other times, it can be both. “American Fiction” is the latest in the genre with Jeffrey Wright in the lead role and dealing with the humor and poetry within.
I’m writing this review as a white film critic, and even I know better than to say anything offensive towards the African-American community. But I still can have a laugh and see the empathy within “American Fiction.” Cord Jefferson, whose TV credits include “Watchmen” and “The Good Place,” makes his directorial debut which may repeat the same issues, but still keeps you entertained with how he adapts Percival Everett’s novel “Erasure.”
Wright stars as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a novelist and college professor in Los Angeles, whose teaching methods about Black History upset even his white students, and is forced to take a break from teaching. He’s in Boston for a book convention, and it’s where his family lives. They consist of his recently departed doctor sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross), his gay, coke head plastic surgeon brother Clifford (Sterling K. Brown), their Alzheimer’s stricken mother Agnes (Leslie Uggams), and the housekeeper Lorraine (Myra Lucretia Taylor). Not only is he “basically the outcast” of the family, but also he’s cash strapped in getting his mother the help she needs.
A more popular author is Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), whose book “We’s Lives In Da Ghetto” is an African-American themed book filled. Monk’s publisher Arthur (John Ortiz) suggests that he writes a black book in that notion.
He is sick and tired of what people expect out of black writers. So, to shove it up their asses, he, under the name Stagg R. Leigh, writes a book called “My Pafology,” which is about a rapper Van Go Jenkins (Okieriete Onaodowan) and his deadbeat dad Willy the Wonker (Keith David), as well as the N word, and a cop killing a character. And he makes Arthur send out the book.
Much to their surprise, it becomes a financial success. His identity must be a secret, so both Monk and Arthur make a suggestion that Stagg R. Leigh is the pseudonym for a wanted fugitive. During the meetings, Monk has to act like a stereotypical punk, and when it’s decided that he should change the title of the book, he picks the word “F***.”
Not only does he earn a pivotal position as a judge for The Literary Awards (under his real identity, of course), but he also has a movie deal between him and the white movie producer Wiley (Adam Brody).
And on a smaller note, there’s also a romance with his new neighbor-the soon-to-be-divorced Coraline (Ericka Alexander)-who happens to be a fan of his books. Eventually, she comes across his latest book, even though she doesn’t know Monk is Stagg R. Leigh.
“American Fiction” has Wright in one of his best and most fearless performances as a man reluctantly giving in to a certain target audience. He can’t stand their tastes, and even though I’m white, I still like to sympathize his issue. And inside this ongoing issue, there are good laughs which can be smart with the right timing.
Wright also has entertaining supporting work from Ross, Alexander, Brown, and Uggams, who are all given truth in their characteristics, and there’s even likability within Ortiz as the publisher and Brody as the producer. Even through the cynicism, Jefferson directs these actors with various traits, and he makes “American Fiction” crucial in any generation. It’s sad that history repeats itself with ongoing racism, but it can also be inspiring when people fight against it. This is applies to both real life and on film.
In Select Theaters This Friday and Expands on December 22