Stubs - American Fiction

American Fiction (2023) starring Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David. Directed by Cord Jefferson. Screenplay by Cord Jefferson. Based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett. Produced by Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson, Jermaine Johnson. Run time: 117 minutes. Color. USA. Comedy, Drama

When the Academy Awards nominations are announced, sometimes the movies being nominated are no longer in the theaters and if they come back, not always at convenient times or places. Such is my excuse for not having watched American Fiction before the Academy Awards. I tried to rectify this by watching the film, on my cell, during a recent flight to Texas. I enjoyed the film so much, that the next week, I watched it again at home so that my entire family could watch.

Dr. Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) trying to teach to "snowflakes".

The film is about Dr. Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), a black novelist turned professor at UCLA, who goes through a professional and personal crisis while in Boston on business. Published, Monk’s books have had critical success but low sales. His agent, Arthur (John Ortiz), has had trouble placing his latest book because it’s not "black" enough. And on an extended stay in his home town, Monk loses his sister, Dr. Lisa Ellison (Tracee Ellis Ross), and becomes primary carer for his mother Agnes (Leslie Uggams), whose once brilliant mind is being devastated by Alzheimer's and will soon need around the clock and expensive care.

Monk finds happiness with Coraline (Erika Alexander).

On the good side, Monk meets the neighbor at his parent’s oceanside home, a public defender in Quincy, Coraline (Erika Alexander), but finds he struggles with intimacy with her.

Monk’s way out of most of his troubles is to write a mocking tale of black life in the ghetto, which he insists on calling Fuck, which to his dismay, his publisher is okay with. Not wanting to be known who he is, Monk adopts Stagg R. Lee as his nom de plum for this book, giving Lee a criminal backstory and pretending he is an escapee from the law.

To Monk’s dismay, Fuck is a runaway best seller, hailed by many, including those he works with on an awards nomination committee, as a necessary read and the best book of the year.

Like all things, the joke gets out of hand and there is little Monk can do but let it run its course.

In addition to taking its shot at current publishing trends, American Fiction takes a shot at current cinema with Hollywood crafting entertainment aimed at the lowest common denominator, but pretending it’s telling meaningful stories. This is what attracts filmmaker Wiley Valdespino (Alan Brody) to adapting the book and paying a huge option for it.

A film about breaking stereotypes, though, does have a few of its own, including its depiction of Wiley and Monk’s estranged brother Dr. Clifford "Cliff" Ellison (Sterling K. Brown). While I think Brown does a good job in the role, much of it seems to play into your image of what a gay man would be like in the worst case: doing coke, drinking during the day, and hanging around with two much younger men who never get more formal than their speedos, even at a wedding.

Even the ending of the film, which turns into a film within a film, plays with stereotypes that please Wiley, but leave Monk a little disappointed but still happy.

The film does two things that remind me, favorably, with other movies. Writing is not usually a spectator sport, but American Fiction does a good job in showing the process, much like The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) did with Dickens writing A Christmas Carol. The characters and the writer talk to each other during the process. The character’s voice is really that of the author’s, even if what is being said has no basis for it.

And there is the notion that in art, things that don’t work in real life can be made to work. Monk wonders if in a fictional film, he can work out things with Caroline, who in reality won’t return his calls. It’s similar to playwright Alvy Singer rewriting the last time his character had spoken to Annie Hall in the Woody Allen film of the same name.

The film is full of great throwaway lines between characters that show a great wit. I’m not sure how much of that is lifted from the book the film is based on, Erasure by Percival Everett, and how much is due to writer/director Cord Johnson, but this is a very good screenplay and deserved Best Adapted Screenplay at the most recent Academy Awards.

While the writing is great, it is the acting that really carries the film. Brown is very good in a role with stereotype around the fringes, but it is Wright who carries the film.

Monk and his brother Dr. Clifford "Cliff" Ellison (Sterling K. Brown).

Monk is our guide through a world that he both understands and doesn’t. Reality is really what you make it in American Fiction. There is a difference between what he wants to do and what he must do and those lines cross back and forth throughout the story. It is a shame that Wright’s performance came in a year when the winner for Best Actor was already “picked’ before the nomination ballots were mailed. Otherwise, he would have been a good choice for that honor.

I am old enough to remember when Leslie Uggams was making her debut on network television as a young and rising star. It makes me feel old to see her playing the mother here and one who is deteriorating. But she gives a very strong performance.

Monk, Agnes (Leslie Uggams) and Dr. Lisa Ellison (Tracee Ellis Ross).

While her screen time is brief, Tracee Ellis Ross gives a memorable performance as an OB/GYN whose own life has gone through changes, including a divorce.

Erika Alexander’s Coraline may be the most grounded of the characters in the film. She knows what she wants and how much she’ll take from Monk. He tries to keep her in the dark and you see her getting fed up with that. She is the type of woman Monk would be lucky to have.

In many ways, American Fiction reminds me, and in a good way, of Annie Hall (1977). In both films, the main characters are very flawed men trying to make their lives work in art, if not in reality. They find true love, but their own personalities push it away. Rather than a Jewish neurotic, we get Monk, who could probably use some therapy when all is said and done.

And like Annie Hall, I very much enjoyed American Fiction and would highly recommend it. It is a small film with a big story. And while you can watch it on your phone at 30,000 feet, I would recommend at least a large screen TV. Even small films look better that way.