Fiction à l'américaine

An author, dejected by the state of society and what readers consider black literature, decides to give the people what they want: a stereotypical black story. What was supposed to be a satirical commentary turns into something more than he ever expected.

This film is an adaptation of the novel Erasure by Percival Everett. The film is a good mix of drama and comedy. One storyline makes fun of how, even though society is becoming more accepting of minorities, it unintentionally marginalizes them by continuing to perpetuate stereotypes. At the same time, another storyline shows an individual struggling with the hardships of life. The film's display of irony makes it an intriguing watch and reflects our current state as a society. This is a great film to watch with friends and discuss afterward.

This is a very thoughtful and entertaining movie. My wife seldom comments much but even a day later she commented on how good it is.

Jeffrey Wright is professor and novelist Thelonious Ellison. His family and close friends call him 'Monk' in honor of the famous jazz musician and composer Thelonious Monk, who died in 1982 at the age of 64.

This Monk takes his writing novels very seriously but is not achieving much success. Meanwhile he encounters another author, a well-educated and well-spoken black woman. However when she reads a portion of her latest popular book, it is all broken English and black slang. He is taken aback, what is going on here?

At some point he decides to spoof the industry, he writes a novel of black characters who use reprehensible language and ghetto slang. He writes it as a joke with a made-up pen name. To his surprise and shock the publishing company loves it, they offer a big sum to publish it, and another company is jockeying for the movie rights.

Reflecting on the story I am a bit loss on how to explain the last half hour of it, but it is overall a very well-made and entertaining movie. Jeffrey Wright is superb in the role.

My wife and I watched it at home, streaming on Prime.

"American Fiction" has a great premise, one of the best in any movie this year. And I overall liked it and think it was well made, so I'm rounding my score up to reflect that. But it somehow didn't completely land for me, in a way that I find hard to explain.

I think it was the domestic drama part of the film that didn't completely work for me. The movie spends a lot of time on all the ways that Jeffrey Wright feels overwhelmed by his life's responsibilities, and it sags in some of these parts, and makes the movie feel a little bit like a slog. And I don't know that I ever completely believed the character played by Sterling K. Brown, who never seemed convincing as a gay man. But I did like what the film had to say about the burden placed on black people to constantly be representing black people everywhere that white people never have to deal with. And I also liked the choose your own adventure ending that takes the film into meta territory in its final scenes.

So, solid double for me, but not a home run.

Grade: A-

I had not heard of this movie before the lead-up to the Oscars, and I thought that it sounded like an intellectual endeavour that would be important to watch. What I didn't expect was that it would be so much fun - hilarious, in fact!

Jeffrey Wright was spot-on in his depiction of a frustrated academic getting in trouble with his liberal white colleagues and students for being blunt when talking about race. Outside of his job, he's generally grumpy with everything and everyone. But in watching what he has to deal with, we really can't blame him: modern America expects everyone to be ambitious and better themselves, but when Monk does this, he feels like a fish out of water and only gains fans when he pretends to be a "poor boy from the hood".

This movie addresses a lot of issues, covering homophobia, infidelity and grief, as well as racism, but it does so with a light touch. By focusing on characters and entertainment, it enlightens viewers without ever feeling like a lecture.

This was really good on so many levels. It was funny and thought-provoking and intelligent. I can see it landing a number of Oscar nominations, and not just so the academy can show off its new found diversity (although that would be fitting given the storyline and themes this movie tackles).

In short, Thelonius Ellison is a struggling author. When his latest book doesn't sell because it's not "black enough" he writes the most cliched black novel he can come up with, full of gang bangers and hoes. His agent submits it under a nom de plume and wouldn't you know, it becomes a best-seller. That's the bones of this story but it's so much more than that, as Ellison deals with an aging mother, an older brother who has just recently come out, and a new girlfriend. There's a twist towards the end of this movie that I won't spoil, but just suffice to say it made a good movie great IMO.