American Fiction
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Thelonious “Monk” Ellison's writing career has stalled because his work isn’t deemed “Black enough.” Monk, a writer and English professor, writes a satirical novel under a pseudonym, aiming to expose the publishing world's hypocrisies. The book’s immediate success forces him to get deeper enmeshed in his assumed identity and challenges his closely-held worldviews.
- Released:
- Runtime: 117 minutes
- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Stars: Myra Lucretia Taylor, Erika Alexander, Sterling K. Brown, Adam Brody, Leslie Uggams, John Ortiz, Jeffrey Wright, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, Skyler Wright, Patrick Fischler, Carmen Cusack, Dustin Tucker, Michael Jibrin, David De Beck, Michele Proude, Keith David, Kate Avallone, Okieriete Onaodowan, Miriam Shor
- Director: Cord Jefferson
Comments
- davidpetrison - 28 June 2024
A satire about what it is like to be black in the modern literary world
American Fiction tells the simple story of a professional black man who has a general contempt for the system around him. Thelonious "Monk" Ellison is a college professor whose stubborn worldview can be too much for his students to handle, as well as his colleagues in the faculty. He is supposedly also a writer, though he hasn't published anything in a while.
As an African American, Monk has a dislike for the business-heads who make the central decisions at the publishing houses. He also has an overall contempt for the common reading audience, as he feels they fail to realize the types of stereotypes they tend to support. He supposes in this environment, he might as well be a walking cliche, creating the type of writing that is seemingly an easy sell. He creates a phony account of his life under an assumed identity, formulating a hastily crafted persona to go with it. The intention is to obviously mock the the trends in the industry. He assumes this will all be quickly rejected, but at least he will be acknowledged as taking a stand.
Unsurprisingly, Monk's humor winds up being totally lost on the prototypical publishers, even though it should be easy to deem it as entirely unacceptable. The amount of rationalization the editors use to welcome his work is to him shocking. Hmm. Maybe the literary world treats black writers with easier prejudices than even he realized.
The film is assured and successful due to across-the-board strong performances and particularly well-paced editing. Jeffrey Wright is quite proficient as the central "Monk", conveying a dissatisfied ire that is meant to alienate his peers, yet he does it while never losing support from the film's viewing audience. Director Cord Jefferson presents an assured comedy with bona fide laughs and moments of genuine surprise. The writers seem to be calling out the work of specific best selling authors who perhaps are a central problem, though no one is mentioned by name or is characterized in identifiable detail. The general posit is nevertheless familiar enough to believe. As a whole, it is very plausible.
The film's story is not particularly revelatory or unique (I kept thinking of Alexander Payne in particular), but it seems well-intentioned and contains some genuine truths. Moreover, it is a very easy watch, which is what you want from a comedy.
Overall, quite successful..
8/10. - 851222 - 5 June 2024
A good movie
Greetings from Lithuania.
"American Fiction" (2023) is a very good movie that you can watch on casual evening without knowing its background, books it might have based on or anyting else and just enjoy the experience. Its just like i did. I really enjoued this movie for its excellent pacing, good acting and very good writing. At running time 2 hours this movie never dragged. This movie was a mix of delightfull good feel family movie, some love story, social commentary and some other things i won't get into details.
Overall, without going deeper in its subject, purely as a movie "American Fiction" does work very well, and that is all I'm here for.
