By Valerie Cameron
American Fiction
Rated: R
Comedy Drama
MGM
This is my number one favorite movie of the year. Jeffrey Wright gets better every time I see him and he leads this film with confidence. It is hard to make a smart satire without coming off either too arrogant or so unrelatable you are questioning what you are watching. Director Cord Jefferson and writer Percival Everet hit the sweet spot with American Fiction. As a middle aged, white female I totally understood what this film was saying. I can see how some middle aged, and older, white American could get a little butt hurt by this movie. If this movie does make you annoyed at the portrayal of the white characters in the publishing world, well...Ironically you need to take a long hard look at yourself and the world around you. We all know this happens. Let's be real.
What if the only way you could get noticed as a writer was to write a book you didn't believe in, as a joke? Then you watch that "joke" that you find to be vile and disgusting, take the literary world by storm. Do you lean into success or fight to publish work you believe in?
The writing is smart, the characters are relatable and the comedy is on point.
This was not a movie that was on my radar at all this year. I will keep saying it, this year was the year of well made "quiet" movies that you want to see over and over. American Fiction is defiantly a movie you should add to your watch list.
with out any hesitation it is my #1 movie of the year!
Plot:
Monk (Jeffrey Wright) is a frustrated novelist who is fed up with the establishment that profits from Black entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, he uses a pen name to write an outlandish Black book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.
Grade: Solid A
Staring:
Tracee Eliss Ross
Stirling K. Brown
Erika Alexander
Jeffrey Wright
Issa Rae
Adam Brody
Keith David
John Ortiz