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American Fiction Movie Review

American Fiction is a 2023 dramedy film directed by Cord Jefferson and starring Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown. It’s a deeply flawed, but entertaining satire.

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“Geniuses are loners because they can’t connect with the rest of us“

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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 the hypocrisy and madness he claims to disdain. Based on a novel, this film has a lot to say about how the media treats stories from black people, in particular focusing on critiquing white liberals. It has been obvious for quite a while to everybody who’s paying attention that it is the white liberals that are the most racist group of the bunch and finally we have a film that satirizes that.

The movie cleverly and truthfully depicts how the world of literature works and taking a look into the world of publishing was particularly interesting. The comedic tone was excellent and the humor was biting, honest and also pleasingly silly at times. Yes, it was ripe with situations that ranged from silly to downright implausible, but undeniably the movie achieved to be quite fun and funny in said sequences with the highlights being the interview on television and publishers agreeing to the book’s ridiculous title.

So overall, the social commentary worked. I’d expected a toxic discourse on race relations going in, but what I got was a pretty honest take on white liberals’ guilt and prejudices about black people, especially men. The critique of the literary world was quite biting too. All of this worked in spite of veering toward too silly in certain moments.

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The issues that I have with this film all stem from Cord Jefferson’s directing. American Fiction was obviously made by a first-time writer-director and it shows throughout. Some of his choices really worked with that ending actually being quite unique and inventive, though the meta storytelling has become tiresome by now. For his first time, Jefferson showed a lot of potential, but he failed to imbue the film with more cinematic qualities – the cinematography, score and editing are all just standard.

There is also the structural issue at the core of the movie that tried to juggle two dissimilar storylines and tones all at once. I am all for dramedies, but this film felt more as two entirely different movies – one a satirical comedy about the media and the other a tragic family drama. The gay brother subplot, although quite touching and effective, felt needlessly thrown into this uneven hodgepodge of ideas and themes.

With that being said, both storylines worked because of strong emotional engagement, solid characterization and excellent acting across the board. Jeffrey Wright delivered a standout performance in the main role of Monk, a frustrated author who falls into a trap of his own making – making it big on a stereotypical novel that he wrote. Wright showed both dramatic and comedic chops in a role that demanded both. Monk is a great character and Wright undeniably deserved his Oscar nomination for it.

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Another actor worthy of praise is Sterling K. Brown. While I do find the focus on Cliff in the second half overwhelming, his arc was still quite strong and Brown was very charismatic and likable in it. Other characters and actors all come and go with Issa Rae and Tracee Ellis Ross making the most impact, but in very minor roles.