A novelist who's fed up with the establishment profiting from "Black" entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain. Cord Jefferson’s commentary on Hollywood, the publishing industry, and racial stereotypes is a funny and clever breath of fresh air from the usual awards season movie. Jeffrey Wright stars as novelist Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from “black” entertainment that relies on offensive stereotypes and overused tropes. Wright gives a brilliantly authentic performance as Monk, with just enough nuance and layers to make the character inherently likable. Right from the hilarious opening scene, he has to deal with the typical overly sensitive white progressive who can’t handle seeing the “N word” even in the context of educational purposes. Throughout the film, Monk has to go along with what the eccentric corporate elitists think is “profound writing” and “the black experience in America” even though he would much rather be writing high quality fictional literature.
There are more than a few laugh out loud sequences in which Monk has to pretend he’s a hardened criminal, and that personality switch from acting like a “hood” to a regular citizen is something that Wright pulls off effortlessly. The film also deals with themes of the challenges of aging parents, complex family relationships, and sexuality in quite a thoughtful manner. Monk’s gay brother Cliff played by Sterling K. Brown in particular is a standout and the dynamic between the two is fairly believable. It’s not just the brotherly dynamic that works so well, but also the relationship between Monk, Cliff and their dementia ridden mother Agnes played by Leslie Uggams. Another standout is John Ortiz as Monk’s agent Arthur who pesters Monk to go along with submitting his garbage satire to high end publishers. There’s a great scene in which Arthur makes a metaphor with the hierarchy of Johnnie Walker scotch as it relates to what the average person is most likely to consume. It’s a genius comparison that perfectly describes how so many consumers would rather absorb cheap, trope filled and trashy content instead of actual quality literature. It’s very true. People these days want something easy and dumb to reinforce their limited world view, especially as it pertains to the establishment’s obsession with portraying black men as criminal “thugs” with a deadbeat dad.
Rather than coming off as trying to lecture any one specific person or group, the film works because it is extremely self aware and uses the conversations between Monk and people with different perspectives to make the viewer think about how we view these things in our society. What starts out as a joke story by Monk is taken super seriously by stuck up elitists who go so far as to label his hack job novel as “brave.” It just shows how simple minded “modern day audiences” can be when it comes to being force fed ridiculously stereotypical and demeaning stories and hailing them as a general representation of the “black experience in America.” The main ideological struggle comes with the dialogue scenes between Monk and Sintara Golden played by Issa Rae who utilizes all the most outrageously offensive stereotypes about black people in her work that Monk so passionately detests. Their conversations are genuinely thought provoking as they are uncomfortably funny to watch.
I would say there are a couple of supporting characters who weren’t bad at all, but definitely felt a bit underused. Monk’s new girlfriend Coraline played by Erika Alexander and two other characters who fall in love were good in the film, but did not get enough to do and were overshadowed by the main actors. Nonetheless, the movie smartly balances complex emotional drama, social commentary, and humor in a very intelligent and thoughtful way. Not all of the characters get to equally shine, but the ones who do no doubt make this worth a watch. Overall, Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction is a cleverly written, hilariously self aware, and witty social commentary that showcases a top notch performance from Jeffrey Wright and a genius message of how the dumber something is, the more money it makes.
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