American Fiction
Promotion and consumption of antiracist readings was reignited by the summer of 2020. It was a year where people felt that it was “especially important” to read the work of Black authors, specifically those that talk about Black suffering. In “American Fiction” (based on Percival Everett’s novel Erasure), director Cord Jefferson takes apart what counts as mass market white interest in Black stories and its qualifying characteristics as well as limitations.
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) is an author who teaches creative writing at a college. He’s published but not famous, his current book won’t sell to publishers. Media attention is given to Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), a middle class raised Black author whose novel centers around black women in the inner city. Prompted by her success, which feels impossible compared to his uphill battle for publication, Monk decides to create a fantasy. He writes My Pafology (later indignantly renamed Fuck) under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh an alias for which he adopts the persona of a faceless wanted fugitive. Thrown together with no regard for craft or detail, rampant with stereotypes about blackness Monk intends for his book to be more therapeutic than anything else, a manuscript written out of anger towards and against the publishing industry world’s perception of him as well as all other such writers like him who’ve ever lived.
But then some editor wants to pass it along because they think it’s genius; so does an over zealous movie producer who wants Oscars
Monk’s fake book brings new problems for his family. Death, hostility between siblings and ailing health of their mother do nothing but intensify Monk’s questions about his identity and other matters. All in all, these parts with relatives are good because they blend into Monk’s reality thus making the weight of Stagg’s fantasy heavier. Sterling K. Brown does an amazing job playing as Clifford, Monk’s younger brother who is wilder and more vulgar than him. The movie deals well with issues of black masculinity from historically repressive standpoints through Clifford as a gay man, Monk as an overthinking intellectual type and their late father who represents what it means to be emotionless man according to most memories about him.
However, “American Fiction” uses Black women characters as mere supporting tools for men’s stories once again. Lisa (played by Tracee Ellis Ross) has very little screen time she only exists so that some events could be explained before disappearing right after the first major turning point at her party, Coraline (Erika Alexander) acts like she is always there just to encourage Monk when Clifford destroys him verbally but also serves as our way into seeing Monk outside of writing or taking care of Agnes; Lorraine (Myra Lucretia Taylor), their live in maid, becomes second mother figure while Agnes deteriorates mentally/physically but Sintara seems created solely to challenge everything that Monk believes in philosophically without offering anything else back up against those beliefs herself which feels wrong somehow considering how much effort went into giving Clifford history/nuance/a full narrative arc besides being one-dimensional character supposed to support only his brother’s development throughout the plot line so why didn’t anyone notice this? It seems like nobody would have cared about sidelining black females here if Monk was going it alone on his journey through life during this film called “american fiction”. Yet even though Monks narrative serves as the core of this film titled “American Fiction” still tries hard to give Clifford more depth and back story than any other character in the film.
The fact that people want to see black struggle on screen is not a new idea, it is a concept as old as the hills and Jefferson’s movie recognizes that well, by showing us how deep those biases run throughout history into today’s world where success has many faces but failure always shares the same skin color Blackness! Wright does an incredible job at portraying Monk’s bottled emotions alongside his intellectualized responses which are often simmering under the surface of every scene he appears in till they eventually boil over making him act out even though these moments usually result from some sort pain inflicted upon him earlier by someone else. Indeed, he may be unlikable at times, rude or condescending perhaps but we still find ourselves rooting for such characters because their flaws teach them valuable lessons in life while our own frustrations mirror theirs most times.
“American Fiction” loses control during its last act stumbling through daydream sequences and multiple storylines before finally finding an anticlimactic ending. But what will stick with viewers about this movie is not so much what happens at the end but rather how carefully thought out everything else was leading up to it only problem being that sometimes it tried too hard to make you feel something when you should have already been feeling it all along? This film does pose one important question however which cannot be ignored: Where does black art begin meeting black life? And why are there so many obstacles placed upon creators who want these two worlds collide in their works?
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