Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” is a confident debut — a remarkable feat of comedy, satire and racial politics featuring a brilliant performance from Jeffrey Wright.
Adapted from Percival Everett’s novel “Erasure,” it’s an anti-woke screed about how well-meaning white people want black people portrayed in art.
Wright plays Thelonious Ellison, a writer and English professor whom everybody calls Monk. He’s a brilliant writer who, as a major cynic, is struggling to find a publisher for his next book.
The film opens with him telling a white girl student in his class that she shouldn’t be offended that he’s written the “N-word” on the board in his classroom. “With all due respect, Brittany, if I can get over it, so can you,” he says.
Because of this incident, Monk is forced to take a leave of absence from the college. He decides to head back to his home of Boston, staying with his sister, Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross), brother, Cliff (Sterling K. Brown) and dementia-ridden mother, Agnes (Leslie Uggams).
Monk is cash-strapped, as his intellectual books are not popular, so he sits at his typewriter, and begins writing a book that will adhere to all the white-guilt clichés imaginable about black people — he calls it “My Pafology.” The book is, at first, written as a joke, filled with gangsta motifs and horrendously illiterate dialogue.
Monk hands over the manuscript to his agent, Arthur (John Ortiz), under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh. The next day, he gets an offer for $750,000, Monk can’t believe it (“I wrote it as a joke!”).
All of a sudden, the book, titled “F*ck” is a sensation, with a movie deal in the works. Monk is astonished by his, mostly white, readership’s total ignorance. His soulless black creativity is accepted as a triumph by the NPR crowd.
“American Fiction” is filled with satire sting, reminding me of Alexander Payne’s earlier films. It mixes drama and comedy to ignite a socio-cultural conversation that is much needed today. This is a thoughtful, and quite often very funny, look at identity.
Jefferson, a former journalist, already has formidable credits as a television writer for “Master of None,” “Watchmen” and “Succession,” among others. I can’t wait to see what he does next.