Frank Reck
Recently nominated for an Oscar in the ‘Best Picture’ category, American Fiction is a comedy-drama film written and directed by Cord Jefferson in his feature directorial debut.
Jefferson was mainly involved with writing for TV and whose previous credits include Watchmen, The Good Place and Master of None. This is his first foray in to writing a screenplay for the big screen. For me this was a great first attempt, with very tight dialogue and a story structure that gets straight to the point. At a running time at just under two hours it feels just about right.
The main character in the story, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison ,and is played by Jeffery Wright. Monk is a Professor and lecturer in English literary studies. The in-sighting incident that gets story going in this film comes much closer to the beginning of the film then it normally would in a conventional three act structure.
In this case it happens when“Monk” puts the“N“ word on the whiteboard during a lecture for illustrative and discussion purposes at about five minutes into the film.
Everyone is good with this, except one person, in this case it is a white female student, who eventually runs from the class. This sets up one of the main strands of the film.
Monk is “asked”to take a leave of absence because of the fear of damage to the colleges reputation due a complaint made by the female student.
Monk is also an author with several books to his credit and is very concious about the type of material he writes, he is very aware about been African American and this is reflected in his writing so he stays away from what he regards as “trauma porn”.
As he reconnects with his more successful family, the ensuing family circumstances force Monk to compromise on his idealism with unintended consequences that soon get out of control and these quickly become a social satirical commentary on woke and identity politics.
Mixed in all of this is several plot lines.The strongest plot line is associated with his brother Cliff, played by Sterling Kelby Brown and whose wife and kids have left him because he has come out as a gay man. Other members of Monks family include his sister Lisa played by Tracy Ellis Ross, and his mother Agnes who is showing signs of dementia and is played by Leslie Uggams. Special mention should be given to John Ortiz who plays Arthur, Monks agent, as he is also pivotal to the plot.
When his mother has to move in to full-time care, Monk has to “figure something out..” to pay the bills. From this point on Monk has to compromise on his style of writing. What follows is a process that Monk hates on an intellectual level, but on a practical level it is what is needed.
There are themes of identity politics, about how we put people in to certain categories and how we ourselves are expected to behave given others expectations of us.
In conclusion I really liked the film. I was pleasantly surprised about how the storyline developed. The actors all put in strong performances, especially Monk’s brother Cliff.
He showed the ability to take hard decisions and understood the consequences of his sexuality. Cliff serves as a catalyst for Monk to become more attuned to the people around him and become less judgemental about himself and others.
Spike lee’s Bamboozled and more recently Old Dads are passed films that deal with similar themes, however American Fiction is unique in it’s satirical content and the contradictions that exist mainly in society in the US.
The following piece of dialogue sums up Monks dilemma:
Arthur: They want a black book
Monk: They have a black book, I’m Black and it’s my Book.
Arthur: You know what I mean.
Jeffery Wright who has films like Hold The Dark and Basquit, to his credit ,has put in a good performance here. Overall it is thought provoking and smart and deserves it deserved an Oscar nomination in the ‘Best Picture’ category and well worth the investment of time.
