Hartford
American Fiction Pulls A Switcheroo
by | Jan 24, 2024 1:45 pm
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Posted to: Film
Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious "Monk" Ellison.
American Fiction (2023)
Cinemark Buckland Hills 18 XD and IMAX
Manchester, Conn.
Jan. 23, 2024
Warning: This review contains spoilers.
As soon as I saw the trailer for American Fiction, I knew I had to see it. Partially because I’m a frustrated fiction writer myself. Partially because I’ve often lamented the kinds of stories that Black people are allowed to tell. Partially because it’s a Black movie and they need my money. I mostly wanted to see it because I wanted to see how the movie dealt with its central conflict: Does “urban” literature perpetuate stereotypes? Are we as Black writers always performing for White people either way?
But as I watched the movie, I realized that wasn’t the central conflict at all. Director Cord Jefferson had pulled an incredible switcheroo and made a Black family movie that looks like a Black Movie For White People™. As a result, he’s made something really special.
Literary agent Arthur (played by John Ortiz) has a great line during the movie: “White people think they want the truth, but they don’t. They just want to be absolved.” That’s what a Black Movie For White People™ is for. It allows White people to feel like they’ve learned something about how hard the Black experience is and avoid any guilt associated with their new knowledge. White saviorism is NOT a requirement for a Black Movie For White People™, as they’ve gotten much more sophisticated since The Help. It just needs to star Black people but center White people. (The American Society of Magical Negroes is looking like a great example of this.)
And it seemed like American Fiction was going to savage those kinds of movies. The premise is straightforward: Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (played by Jeffrey Wright) is a Black writer who can’t sell his latest novel. After seeing the success of fellow writer Sintara Golden’s book, which he considers rife with Black stereotypes, he decides to write his own under a pen name, as a joke. Except the joke book sells and becomes massively popular, leading Monk to grapple with a host of questions about race, literature and performance.
At least, that’s what the movie says it’s about. I was expecting a host of hilarious hijinks centered around racial discomfort and thundering monologues about Black life. Don’t get me wrong, those were in there, but they were secondary to Monk’s family drama.
What American Fiction is really about is Monk going home to take care of his dying mother Agnes (Leslie Uggams) and reconciling with his sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross) and brother Clifford (Sterling K. Brown). During his time back home, Monk meets Coraline (Erika Alexander) and the two begin dating. The events that bring these characters together are tragic, hilarious and genuine. Their interactions are what Jefferson rightly focuses on.
For me, the best character in the movie is Lorraine, played by Myra Lucretia Taylor. She’s the longtime maid that stays with the Ellisons, and has become family. She represents the joyful heart at the center of the movie. Even through all the pain and doubt and frustration, she is the person who brings the family back together for a truly moving celebration later in the movie.
The fake book storyline does eventually resurface. Thankfully, Jefferson mostly plays it for laughs instead of sermonizing. But the movie does fall a bit flat here, as Monk never really reckons with his hypocrisy. He never tells anyone besides Arthur that he’s the real author of My Pafology (the name of his fake book), so no one ever confronts him. And he has no interiority about his own actions. He unironically berates Sintara mercilessly for writing Black stereotypes, even while he collects a check for doing the same. He never confronts himself, so he gets off (almost) scot-free for being a jerk to the people around him.
Despite that criticism, American Fiction is an outstanding movie. It’s less like Crash, Hidden Figures, 12 Years a Slave and other Oscar-bait race movies, and more like The Best Man, Waiting to Exhale and The Wood — classic Black movies that are about reconciliation and love between family and friends. I can’t wait to head to the theater to see it again.
NEXT
American Fiction is playing at Cinemark Buckland Hills 18 XD and IMAX.
Jamil’s not sure what he has coming up next. Stay tuned!
I (old white guy) enjoyed the film. Like Jamil Ragland, I particularly liked the character of Lorraine.
One complaint. The film consistently portrays the white characters as complete idiots. All people, myself included, are complete idiots at times. Some people are routinely idiots. But a bit of nuance would have been useful. In contrast, the African-American characters are multi-dimensional, which is a welcome contrast to much of film history.