Strip out the attention-grabbing and brilliantly barbed satire from American Fiction, and it would still be one of the best films of the year. The most impressive trick that writer/director Cord Jefferson pulls off in his adaptation of Percival Everett’s novel Erasure isn’t the hilariously pointed critique of how white guilt flattens the Black experience. It’s that he includes a fully realized, three-dimensional example of what is lost by reducing an entire community’s storytelling to recounts of suffering.
The “A” story in Jefferson’s dynamic debut sees writer Thelonius “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) pen a stereotypical “ghetto” novel he wrote to mock the genre. He uses a pseudonym that morphs into an entire fake character who is a former felon currently on the run from the FBI. Of course, it is sold for an astounding profit. Of course, the movie rights go for even more. Of course, it becomes a best-seller and is met with universal acclaim. The whole debacle leads to wildly funny and insightful beats that are never cheap or obvious laughs.
But throw all of that out, and you’re left with a “B” story that gets an A+. Monk’s family is falling apart. His dad’s suicide years prior left the family in shambles. His sister, Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross), and brother, Clifford (Sterling K. Brown), are both going through pretty ugly divorces. Clifford in particular has had his whole life upended after coming to grips with his homosexuality. Their mother, Agnes (Leslie Uggams), is slowly sliding into dementia. But not everything is tragedy, as Monk bumbles into what could be love with a new neighbor, Coraline (Erika Alexander) while the family housekeeper, Lorraine (Myra Lucretia Taylor), has found even later-in-life love.
The Ellisons are a rich, complex, captivating and quintessentially American family dealing with the same collision of soul-crushing capitalism that comes for everyone who lives here. They are also unique, not just in the sense that Black families aren’t usually given the space to unpack universal struggles, but because every single character – literally every one – is beautifully complicated. Unlike so many praised performances these days, Wright and Brown don’t do “the most” acting just some of the best. The things that go unsaid feel screamed. Intimate gestures and light touches are body blows. And this is in a comedy.
And the comedy is very funny. There are a few genuine howlers that punctuate a relentless string of chuckles. American Fiction even carefully takes the time to refine the argument it is making against certain exploitive Black trauma fiction. It doesn’t just say “this is on white people,” which it is and which the film does explicitly confirm. It also says that some of that Black trauma fiction is probably not actually appreciated for the things it does the best.
As sophisticated as this movie is, as smart as it is, what will linger the longest is how emotionally honest and sincere it is. Having gotten to this one late, after it had received so much praise, part of me feared that the reaction was an overcorrection by the overwhelmingly white world of reviewers (like myself). I worried that the celebration was the critic community saying “You got us!” in a way that would have betrayed the point of the film. Nope. This is just one goddamn good movie.
Grade = A
Other Critical Voices to Consider
Jeffrey Lyles at Lyles Movie Files says “It’s refreshing that American Fiction so masterfully skewers the pitifully few targeted genres for films starring a predominantly black cast while offering a welcome new entry into the must-see satire lineup. The film feels like the kind of movie a young Robert Townsend would make as his breakout hit if he started his career in 2023.”
Kathida Woods at The Philadelphia Tribune says “In between the funny bits is so much truth that it’s at times painful. The publishing world, which the last couple of years has come under some much needed scrutiny, is being exposed as well.”
Murtada Elfadl at AV Club says “Death, dementia, and homophobia are all serious issues, but handling them in this fashion feels more like a writer’s exercise about making pointed messages than a seamless integration into this story.”