This film is one I have been looking forward to since the last few months of 2023. American Fiction turned out to be every bit as good as advertised.

Author Thelonious Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), nicknamed Monk, was becoming frustrated with the public at large. His intelligently written books were not being bought, while he saw books that he considered empty and stereotypical thriving in the market.

As a joke, Monk wrote a book embracing every one of the stereotypes and all the heartless prose he was complaining about: a “Black” book. To his shock and dismay, this book was bought by a publishing company and he had to pretend to be a escape black convict to secure the deal. While this was going on, he was having plenty of problems with his family while in Boston.

This was just tremendous. It was cleverly written, extremely funny, taking every racial stereotype and just ripping them through the wringer. The ridiculousness of the plot felt real and true.

Jeffrey Wright was outstanding as the constantly gruff and angry author and the rest of the cast was great too. Sterling K. Brown was a standout as Monk’s gay brother Cliff and there were some poignant moments with Monk and Cliff’s mother Agnes (Leslie Uggams) and their longtime housekeeper Lorraine (Myra Lucretia Taylor). Lorraine may have been my favorite character of the film, bringing some real kindness and heart to the constant bitterness and fighting.

Erika Alexander was excellent as well as Coraline, the neighbor and love interest for Monk. 

Without spoiling anything, I loved the ending of this movie, as it wrapped up in a way that I did not expect and that I found extremely creative and original. 

This marked the film debut for director Cord Jefferson and he did a fantastic job on American Fiction. The story is told beautifully and these characters are all developed wonderfully well. I really enjoyed this film and I can see why it has received a lot of Oscar buzz.

4.8 stars