The Reel Review
Frustrated over his lack of commercial success, a Black author writes a ridiculous novel filled with offensive Black racial tropes as a joke. When it becomes a huge overnight success, he finds himself pandering to the same white audiences that he had criticized other Black writers for doing. Jeffrey Wright and Issa Rae star in this satirical dramedy based on Percival Everett’s 2001 novel Erasure.
The screwball premise of American Fiction is only part of the story, which features a hodgepodge of more somber topics about life changes – unexpected deaths, dementia and adult children taking care of their parents. It is whip smart, funny and introspective with richly drawn characters that defy the stereotypes it pokes fun at. Wright gives one of his best performances to date, with an exceptional supporting cast that includes a hilarious Issa Rae as one of those pandering Black authors, Tracee Ellis Ross and Sterling K. Brown as his siblings and Erika Alexander (Get Out, Living Single) as his neighbor/love interest. Leslie Uggams also shines as his increasingly demented mother, no longer capable of taking care of herself.
With just so much going on in American Fiction, sometimes the plot from writer/director Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut comes off as slightly superficial, with some of the racial elements at times a bit too on-the-nose. But in all, it is a small criticism for a refreshingly realistic and really funny movie.
REEL FACTS
• American Fiction won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.
• Cord Jefferson is best known as writer of several popular TV series: Watchmen, The Good Place and Master of None.
• American Fiction was filmed in Boston and Scituate, Massachusetts.
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