American Fiction (2023) movie review

Cord Jefferson, a first-time director with American Fiction, has created a challenging, bold and thought-provoking movie which is nominated for 5 Academy Awards. Taking shots at the same industry and group of creators he’s working around, American Fiction engulfs not just modern American fiction but how all art is perceived today by the liberal elite in America where work is analysed based on your race.

Jeffrey Wright (previously seen in The Batman) stars as Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison, a middle-aged college professor and published author with a book currently being considered for publication. This may be Jefferson’s directorial debut but he is an established writer with fine works such as Watchmen and The Good Place under his belt. The movie starts with Monk in a close-up addressing his class with ‘Accidental Nigger’ written on the board. One of his white students has an issue with the word which sets him off leading to an outburst. Clearly, Monk is an angry man. He is unhappy with the world he sees around him.

Asked to take time off from the University on a permanent basis, Monk begrudgingly decides to visit his family. At a seminar in his hometown, he is surprised by the low attendance. He is told the attendance is low because another, more popular writer, has a seminar the same day. Her name is Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) and her book is called ‘We’s Lives in the Ghetto’. He’s surprised and angered by how the writer is being appreciated because she has written in the supposed voice of poor, uneducated black people in America.

Back home, his mother (Leslie Uggams) shows signs of Alzheimer’s and his recently divorced sister is left managing her mother all by herself while working as a physician. Their younger brother Cliff (Sterling K. Brown), a plastic surgeon, also got recently divorced since his wife caught him cheating with another man. It is an interesting sibling dynamic. Monk is the eldest but is barely involved in his siblings’ lives and knows very little about their present lives.

Monk channels his emotions in a new book, the blackest book he can write, writing it scornfully and passing it on to his agent. His agent, Arthur (John Ortiz, getting to shine here playing a skilled salesman and confidante to Monk), knowing Monk’s intention with the book, is at first apprehended by his insistence on sending it to publishers; only to later jump at the idea of selling it when he sees the money being offered. There’s a cool scene where Arthur explains to Monk how he can write books for both commercial and artistic purposes by giving Johnny Walker’s example.

To sell the book as a serious piece of work, Monk has to pretend to be a convict running from the law who has had a hard life on the streets and has to hide his upper-class background. This is where the movie’s biting sense of humour comes into play. Balancing a role that encompasses so much of the human experience within a movie is indeed a monumental challenge but in the hands of someone as talented as Wright, it becomes something special. Such subtlety and nuance are rarely rewarded by the Oscar’s so it’s commendable that the Academy has nominated Wright for his performance in the movie. But it’s a performance surrounded by great work all around. Even with less screen time, the script gives us enough material on each character to make them three-dimensional.

Tracee Ellis Ross as the sister, is especially excellent. Rae and Brody are great in their cameos too. And Brown as Cliff, is a singular force of nature. A rare combination of gift and skill, Brown, made a guest role into something unforgettable with the raw emotion he displays by doing something that can’t seem to be observed by the naked eye.

American Fiction is lit and shot beautifully as well. For a movie that has more layers than an onion, the end is just sublime. This is what movies should be made for and this is why cinema is a powerful artform. The movie challenges the status quo, exposes a new side of an old coin and creates an experience that stays with us long after the credits roll.