Flm: American Fiction

A comedy filled with digs at how the only Black writers that get published are those who write about Blackness. Frustrated author Monk, sets out to prove the point,

So off Monk, goes to write a dumbed-down book in that vein as a joke. The book, as the trailer will tell you, is more commercially, and laughingly, critically successful than his regular novels. Monk (Jeffrey Wright) then has to keep up the stereotype as TV interviews and film deals pour in while he tries to perfect a fake ‘street’ accent.

There are many laugh-out-loud moments. Like Monk being asked to be a book judge and then his own book came up for selection, written under his pseudo name, Stagg. R Leigh. I mean, really. And then when he insists on moving books to what he rightly felt was the correct section of the shop.

The dumber I behave, the richer I get

I read someone who noted that it’s two films in one. The one about the intellectual author proving a point and the one about his semi-estranged family. I love the cast of characters, particularly his sister, a doctor (Tracee Ellis Ross) and his brother, a plastic surgeon.

American Fiction does what it set out to do and then some, as we in turn get introduced to all his family and their own issues.

It is as funny as the trailer and then some.

8/10