American Fiction Review – Razor Sharp Satire Shocks with Realism
- Details
- Category: Film
- Published on Tuesday, 07 November 2023 17:40
- Written by Janet Walker
American Fiction, from MGM and Orion Pictures, which was screened at AFI FEST 2023, presents a razor-sharp satire that mocks equality, race, and uses black stereotypes to propel an unknown scholar to a successful, and rich, author.
The film begins with Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison, played by Jeffrey Wright, a tenured professor at a California college, who has written on the board the most forbidden word in the English language for a white person to say, and is baited into a debate with his white student over her sensitivities to the presentation of the word. Monk explodes and the next scene cuts to a department meeting where he is asked to take some time off.
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He returns to Boston and meets up with his sister, Lisa, played by Tracee Ellis Ross, a doctor at a Family Planning Clinic, who informs him that their mother Agnes, played by Leslie Uggams, has early stage dementia and eventually will need more care then they, and their live-in help, Lorraine, played by Myra Lucretia Taylor, who has been with them since any of them can remember, can provide.
He is also attending the annual BookCon and he along with the other panelist look out over the sparse attendees and is told they are up against superstar author Sintara Golden, played by Issa Rae, who is the featured guest presenter and is sharing a reading from her new book.
As Sintara explains her motivation, the audience, both on screen, and offscreen, expect to hear substance, a poignant literary work of prose, as she explains she wanted to present "our stories" when she begins to read, we, like Monk, are stunned at the ghetto representation of repeated pregnant welfare mommas, unmarried, dependent of the system to raise and pay.
Monk looks around and is as stunned as the audience. He realizes as his agent, Arthur, played by a scene stealing John Ortiz, has been trying to explain people want a black book, not a book by a black author, they want to feel the grit of the ghetto.
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The next day he is having lunch with Lisa when she has a heart attack and shockingly dies. She, as the only daughter, stayed, and made a life in Boston, and as a caregiver, made sure their mother was well.
Gathered at her funeral is Monk's brother Clifford, played by Sterling K. Brown, also a physician living in Tucson, and who finally explains he is gay and not doing so well right now.
Her death brings Monk to the realization that his integrity that he holds as his own standard has stopped him and now as his mother's medical care expenses are looming, he decides to step out of his affluent, high achieving, life, and step into the world of militant black power.
After a little research, he steps into his alter ego, Stagg R. Leigh, and writes a black book and falls down the rabbit hole into the hypocrisy he has spent a lifetime fighting. Suddenly, the book is all anyone is talking about. The two-edged sword has surfaced, as he and his agent are happy at the sudden interest and money, but Monk must die to that idealism of equality to gain the success he deserved.
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This sets up the last act.
American Fiction at face value is an entertaining laugh out loud parody that presents the twists, turns, highs, and lows, of life. The ensemble cast delivers authenticate, relatable, and genuine performances. Throughout the film there are charming, engaging, scene stealing moments.
Winner of the Toronto International Film Festival Audience Award, which has rightly chosen the Best Picture nominees in 15 of the last 15 years and five have gone on to win Best Picture, so the odds are in Director Cord Jefferson's favor of securing a Best Picture nomination.
Under the surface, the film's meaning, which Jefferson does not mask, so one can ascertain he wants the subtext in the film to be considered, we see the mockery of the system that uses a selling point, in this case the grit of the ghetto, in other cases sex, to lure the public into spending their money on a product which makes many people along the way lots of money.
He also presents in his satire an indictment of both races by having a black live-in domestic, who wears an apron, and while she is treated well, she is still the help and when she leaves, and leaves the apron hanging in the house, Monk reminds her not to forget her apron, which she replies, she never liked it anyway. While the exchange was about the apron the double speak and the hidden meaning for both was don't forget your place and it was nothing more than a means to an end.
Jefferson's high achiever resorts to mud wrestling, embracing a culture that many have worked to leave in the rearview and who now understands that enforcing the stereotype of ghetto hood, hoes, bitches and gangs pimping and slinging drugs somehow tantalizes the white audience who is thrilled to "adopt" an African American writer with a sense of selflessness, an altruistic belief that embracing these fictionalized accounts, will somehow erase a history that they in actuality had nothing to do with.
Compelling and engaging, American Fiction is a must see! Meant to be enjoyed as the satire it is.
American Fiction arrives in select theaters December 15, 2023. Check local listings.
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Country: U.S.
Runtime: 117miutes.
Language: English.
Director: Cord Jefferson.
Producer: Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson, Jermaine Johnson.
Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, Skyler Wright, John Ales, Patrick Fischler, Carmen Cusack, Joseph Marrella, Stephen Burrell, Nicole Kempskie, Becki Dennis, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Dustin Tucker, Michael Jibrin, Raymond Anthony Thomas.
