It’s funny how we go into certain movies expecting certain things based on a single thing we heard about them. I guess the marketing department for this one deserves an award because I went into it expecting a straight-up comedy. American Fiction is first and foremost a family drama and only then a satirical exploration of racial stereotypes. It’s about Thelonious Ellison, a writer whose books are not very popular. The editors and the general population, pardon me, the general white population, want something else. And Thelonious is about to give it to them. However, just before he does that he’s going to have to deal with several family emergencies.
American Fiction is a movie based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett. It’s well-written and visually appealing and it tackles a lot of “grown-up” themes. We can divide them into two categories with the first one being personal themes like aging parents, mid-life crisis, and self-discovery. The second one relates to our society in general and the question of whether our decisions are morally right. I know that this sounds a bit “too brainy” but I assure you that the movie manages to explore all of them quite elegantly and intelligently. It doesn’t push narratives down our throats, leaving us to come to our own conclusions. If we want to come to them, that is.
If we don’t, we can look at this movie as an interesting comedy that’s going to keep your attention for almost two hours. With that being said I do have to admit that it started running out of steam and ideas towards the end. Luckily, the final finale was excellent and I absolutely loved it. American Fiction belongs to a new wave of dramedies that avoid melodrama and difficult scenes altogether. I’m talking about movies like Past Lives, Priscilla, and others. Even last year’s big hit, Oppenheimer was a bit like this. As someone who doesn’t generally like dramas, I approve of this decision.
I can finally think about these subjects and watch other people go through difficult times without that annoying emotional milking. On the other hand, we will get that quirky dramedy soundtrack full of jazzy numbers. They additionally defuse the tension and help smooth over the rough patches. Wow, we have talked about a lot of things and we haven’t even touched the main hook for this movie. The hook that makes it such an “Oscar bait”. I’m talking, of course, about the racial dynamic and racial stereotypes in modern American society. I don’t want to go into lengthy rants about this subject as I want to point out something else.
American Fiction is a movie poking fun at white people wanting to see black people as one cohesive unit. The intellectual “elites” are trying to overcorrect along with the audiences to get rid of their white guilt so they praise objectively trashy books. And the same thing is happening with this movie. American Fiction is a slightly above-average comedy, a solid 7.5 on our Subversive Rabbit scale. And yet it’s getting so much attention and praise that I might think that the whole purpose of the movie was to replicate its plot in real life. I already mentioned some of the flaws but I also think that Jeffrey Wright’s performance was a bit flat.
Jeffrey is an excellent actor and I know he’s playing this melancholic writer but still, I expected a bit more subtlety and emotion. Sterling K. Brown, who plays his brother, was excellent, proving that such a performance is possible in this movie. Satire is something Hollywood apparently forgot exists and I love that American Fiction is bringing it back. If you’re looking for something similar but exactly the same, I recommend They Cloned Tyrone, a science fiction comedy leaning heavily into blaxploitation genre tropes. Finally, if we’re talking about racial stereotypes I recommend you check our Subversive Rabbit article: The Subtle and Not-So-Subtle Racism of the TV series Your Honor.
Director: Cord Jefferson
Writers: Cord Jefferson, Percival Everett
Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Sterling K. Brown, Myra Lucretia Taylor
Fun Fact: Thelonious Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer. Although the soundtrack for this movie is quite jazzy none of his songs appear on it.
Rating:
IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23561236/
