I have not read Percival Everett's Erasure, the book on which Cord Jefferson's hilarious and sharp send-up of literary culture and the Black experience, American Fiction, is based. But if the film is any indication, it's a fantastic book and well worth checking out. Jeffrey Wright is Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, a professor and sometime author who hasn't had a literary success in years and it's starting to show, in his professional trajectory as a college professor, which is stalling out, and in his temper, which is getting shorter by the day. He submits his latest work to his editor, Arthur (John Ortiz), but the thoughtful, polished work goes nowhere while a book by his contemporary, Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), caters to the basest, most cliched understanding of Black life in America and is selling like hotcakes.
It's just the beginning of American Fiction's smart take on race relations through the lens of the literary world, as Monk decides to give the people what they want, writing an oversimplified and ultimately silly novel about the rough life of a former convict. Of course, this book hits a (very white) nerve and quickly becomes a pop culture phenomenon, to Monk's complete consternation. Publishers are falling all over themselves for it, there are movie deals and a publicity tour, and all the success and acclaim Monk's ever desired. There's just one problem: he can't claim any of it, because, thinking himself above writing such a farce, he's written it under a pen name.
While the author juggles all the unexpected obligations that come with a successful book (albeit anonymously). he's navigating personal change, as well, coming to terms with his aging mother's failing health, his brother's (admittedly riotous) mid-life crisis and a fledgling new relationship that may just crumble under the weight of his misrepresentations. In the midst of it all, he's sitting on a jury for a national book award that is a who's who of writerly stereotypes, including Sintara, who have to articulate to each other and the public why one book is better than any others. Bolstered by a wonderful cast, including Sterling K. Brown as brother Clifford, Tracee Ellis Ross as sister Lisa, Erika Alexander as new love interest Coraline and a deliciously smarmy Adam Brody as film producer and financier Wiley Valdespino, Wright is in his element, offering up exasperation and razor sharp wit in equal measure.
These days, the films that garner a "see it in the theater" endorsement are usually the ones with impressive special effects, intense action or both, but American Fiction is that rare side-splitting comedy that begs to be seen with a crowd (when I saw it at Toronto Film Festival, the crowd laughed so hard it was often impossible to hear the next line of dialogue). The film's political and social satire is certainly funny, but it's also intelligent and focused, the type of comedy that is all the more entertaining because it's so relatable.
All that is more than enough to make for an enjoyable couple of hours, but Jefferson wisely integrates Monk's personal life into this tumultuous mix, and it's just as messy, hilarious and engaging as the rest. From his relationship with his grown siblings, each of whom are responding in their own uinque ways to dealing with an aging parent and their own family drama, to a relationship with a woman who might actually be good for him if he can keep it together long enough to show her. Perhaps most moving of all is a sweet late-in-life connection between Lorraine (Myra Lucretia Taylor), the family's live-in housekeeper, and Maynard (Raymond Anthony Thomas), the longtime mail carrier. Even Monk's cynicism is tested by their genuine happiness.
Known for his writing work in television, all of it some of the smartest, most astute programming in recent memory (The Good Place, Watchmen, Station Eleven), Cord Jefferson makes a remarkable debut in feature-length filmmaking with American Fiction, at once ensuring audiences that he is a natural storyteller and one who is very worth watching in whatever story it is he decides to tell next.
American Fiction is now playing in theaters.
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