“Your father was a genius. Geniuses are lonely because they can't connect with the rest of us. You're a genius, son.”
“I certainly don't feel like one half the time.”

American Fiction is a hilarious satire about the way modern day white-American entertainment portrays black culture. Which in their minds, is a powerful story of a group of people who attempt to work their way out of dangerous ghettos. Some make it out, others are blown away. Well novelist Thelonious Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) finds that to be a pandering look at his culture. But when he finds out that it makes money, he decides to jump on the bandwagon under an alias with a criminal backstory.

The film is a stab at far-left liberalism, full of people who try their hardest to be inclusive, while unintentionally being racist. An example of this in the film is when Ellison goes to a bookstore, attempting to find his book in the fiction section. When he asks an employee if they own any of his books, they lead him to the section “African American Studies”. Where Ellison delivers a hilarious line, “The blackest thing about this novel is the ink.”.

Another hilarious moment is when Ellison writes his novel, that he himself says is pandering garbage. But when the three white judges outvote the two black judges to make his novel the best novel of the year, the lead judge declares the 3-2 vote the decider then proceeds to say “I think it’s essential to listen to Black voices right now.”. A hilarious, yet powerful scene.

Now about the incredible performances in this film, Jeffrey Wright gives an incredible lead performance as Thelonious. It’s sucks he had to go up against such a stacked Lead Actor lineup at the Oscars, but his performance was absolutely deserving of its nom. We also get great supporting performances, specifically from Sterling K. Brown as Thelonious’ brother, Clifford. And a standout performance from Erika Alexander, as Thelonious’ love interest Coraline. Along with an Oscar winning adapted screenplay, American Fiction is a great film that was unfortunately overshadowed by many other 2023 standouts, such as Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Killers of the Flower Moon to name a few. But with it also being a feature film directorial debut from Cord Jefferson, he should be a name to look out for in upcoming features.

If you’ve seen this film and enjoyed it, I would like to recommend another film that touches on the idea of Hollywood’s racial views of black people, and that is Robert Townsend’s hilarious comedy, Hollywood Shuffle. It’s a lot of fun, and definitely worth a watch.

Featured Lists:
2023 Ranked

“Your father was a genius. Geniuses are lonely because they can't connect with the rest of us. You're a genius, son.”
“I certainly don't feel like one half the time.”

American Fiction is a hilarious satire about the way modern day white-American entertainment portrays black culture. Which in their minds, is a powerful story of a group of people who attempt to work their way out of dangerous ghettos. Some make it out, others are blown away. Well novelist Thelonious Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) finds that to be a pandering look at his culture. But when he finds out that it makes money, he decides to jump on the bandwagon under an alias with a criminal backstory.

The film is a stab at far-left liberalism, full of people who try their hardest to be inclusive, while unintentionally being racist. An example of this in the film is when Ellison goes to a bookstore, attempting to find his book in the fiction section. When he asks an employee if they own any of his books, they lead him to the section “African American Studies”. Where Ellison delivers a hilarious line, “The blackest thing about this novel is the ink.”.

Another hilarious moment is when Ellison writes his novel, that he himself says is pandering garbage. But when the three white judges outvote the two black judges to make his novel the best novel of the year, the lead judge declares the 3-2 vote the decider then proceeds to say “I think it’s essential to listen to Black voices right now.”. A hilarious, yet powerful scene.

Now about the incredible performances in this film, Jeffrey Wright gives an incredible lead performance as Thelonious. It’s sucks he had to go up against such a stacked Lead Actor lineup at the Oscars, but his performance was absolutely deserving of its nom. We also get great supporting performances, specifically from Sterling K. Brown as Thelonious’ brother, Clifford. And a standout performance from Erika Alexander, as Thelonious’ love interest Coraline. Along with an Oscar winning adapted screenplay, American Fiction is a great film that was unfortunately overshadowed by many other 2023 standouts, such as Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Killers of the Flower Moon to name a few. But with it also being a feature film directorial debut from Cord Jefferson, he should be a name to look out for in upcoming features.

If you’ve seen this film and enjoyed it, I would like to recommend another film that touches on the idea of Hollywood’s racial views of black people, and that is Robert Townsend’s hilarious comedy, Hollywood Shuffle. It’s a lot of fun, and definitely worth a watch.

Featured Lists:
2023 Ranked

American Fiction is an effective, witty, fresh, and clever deconstruction dramedy satire about racism, elitism, the cultural industry; common stereotypes, and the way media perpetuates and panders to them to sell. It balances a meta-layered satire on identity and racial tokenization against a charming family drama with a touch of generational trauma. It has a shadow of ambiguity in its nuance but has a lot of depth that aspires to evoke a lot of different interpretations of its witty satire, even though they could’ve dug a little deeper. It never dives as deep as I would desire, yet it carries a strong enough message on self-worth and the value of selling out. We NEED more Jeffrey Wright in leading performances.

American Fiction is an effective, witty, fresh, and clever deconstruction dramedy satire about racism, elitism, the cultural industry; common stereotypes, and the way media perpetuates and panders to them to sell. It balances a meta-layered satire on identity and racial tokenization against a charming family drama with a touch of generational trauma. It has a shadow of ambiguity in its nuance but has a lot of depth that aspires to evoke a lot of different interpretations of its witty satire, even though they could’ve dug a little deeper. It never dives as deep as I would desire, yet it carries a strong enough message on self-worth and the value of selling out. We NEED more Jeffrey Wright in leading performances.

What Cord Jefferson said during his Oscars acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay was inspiring but what this screenplay was lacking that nominees such as The Zone of Interest or Poor Things has was a biting power. This idea is amazing, a black man writing a novel of how white people and others outside of African American social circles could view the black experience through stereotypes is great. The structure and how it eventually indulges in its Oscar-baity ways makes it feel less important. Films by Mario Van Peebles reflect the experience in a manner in which John Waters' early films tackled LGBTQ+ manners. American Fiction comes across as cheesy and difficult to take seriously. Wright is amazing as always and I'm surious as to what Cord Jefferson does next, but this one feels like it thinks it's more important than it may be. It's cool to find something in the film but I was wishing for more in how it ties the book into the life of it's lead character and it doesn't help that those personal aspects the lead's life as less interesting than anything else in the film.

What Cord Jefferson said during his Oscars acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay was inspiring but what this screenplay was lacking that nominees such as The Zone of Interest or Poor Things has was a biting power. This idea is amazing, a black man writing a novel of how white people and others outside of African American social circles could view the black experience through stereotypes is great. The structure and how it eventually indulges in its Oscar-baity ways makes it feel less important. Films by Mario Van Peebles reflect the experience in a manner in which John Waters' early films tackled LGBTQ+ manners. American Fiction comes across as cheesy and difficult to take seriously. Wright is amazing as always and I'm surious as to what Cord Jefferson does next, but this one feels like it thinks it's more important than it may be. It's cool to find something in the film but I was wishing for more in how it ties the book into the life of it's lead character and it doesn't help that those personal aspects the lead's life as less interesting than anything else in the film.

Don’t think I’ve laughed this much in a while

Don’t think I’ve laughed this much in a while