AFF Review: American Fiction

Jeffrey Wright in American Fiction

American Fiction deals with a quaint notion, the idea of "selling out." In this age of Instagram, influencers, and attention seekers of all kinds, it's a rarity that anyone wouldn't want to sell out as fast as they can.

Throw in squeamishness around issues of race in this country, and filmmaker Cord Jefferson has created quite a narrative cocktail.

Thelonious Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), who naturally goes by "Monk," bangs his head against the wall of American letters with little commercial reward. He watches other Black writers cashing in on what he sees as the worst tropes of Black America and its history, always centering on poverty, drugs, or slavery. This is exemplified by Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) who's book seems to him a perfect example. On a lark, he writes his own such work, throwing his hat into the ring with results that surprise even him.

While Monk's struggles and successes in the literary world are a thread throughout the film, we're quickly taken into the bosom of his quirky family for an exploration of how complicated those relationships can get. Heading back to his hometown of Boston for a book festival, Monk falls into familiar patterns with his siblings. Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross) is funny and forward, a great foil to Monk's seriousness, while Cliff (played perfectly by Sterling K. Brown) is newly divorced and out, a man dealing with lots of chaos in his life but enjoying every minute. Mother Agnes (Leslie Uggams) shows signs of dementia, and her care becomes a serious issue for the three.

Family dynamics are just one tentpole in Jefferson's construction of a movie that deals with authenticity in direct opposition to the easy and frivolous. He, like Monk, wants nothing more than for Black people to be seen as full participants in our society, with the richness and complexity that comes from all lived experiences. Both the movie and its creation are ultimately concerned with the same things.

There's a romantic angle here, too, as Monk finds love across the street in Coraline (Erika Alexander) who gets to see the good and the bad of this complex character in short order. As things come to a head with Monk's book, he rages against everything in his life. The introduction of a seedy Hollywood type (played by Adam Brody) adds another wrinkle and allows Jefferson to play fast and loose with cinematic conventions on his way to a finale.

Based on professor and writer Percival Everett's 2001 novel Erasure, American Fiction is both literary and cinematic at its core. The lead's surname of Ellison is surely a nod to Ralph of Invisible Man fame, another book featuring a Black man in America trying to find his identity in the face of box after box he must fit in. Wright's Monk fights back against everything in society trying to keep him small, not content to be anything less than the true measure of himself.

American Fiction

Austin Film Festival runs Oct. 26-Nov. 3. Badges available now at austinfilmfestival.com.
Find more news, reviews, and interviews at Austinchronicle.com/AFF.