American Fiction, the adaptation of Percival Everett’s Erasure, is a prickly thing. A grounded satire that both funny and emotional, the movie tackles a variety of subjects like race, identity, and the writing/entertainment industries. Jeffrey Wright plays Thelonious Ellison, an author and professor, whose disregard for his student sensitivities gets him put on sabbatical. Taking some time off, he finds out his book isn’t selling cause it may not be Black enough for the industry. Smarting from this hurt, he decides to write a book as a joke to show how fickle everything is and adds in a fake identity for the author to boot. Only he ends up writing a book that becomes a hit and must wrestle with the secret as his family life starts to fall apart as well.
Cord Jefferson spoke about wanting to keep the fit more ground than a film like Bamboozled and it does manage to try and keep things held down as much as possible despite the incredibly silly situation his main character finds himself in. During the first half of the film, this proves to be incredibly effective allowing the audience to feel as though we’re lock step with this man as he goes on his incredulous journey. However, as the author’s personal life becomes more dramatic and his professional life buckling under the weight of the secret, the movie feels as though it’s being muzzled a bit, wanting to burst forth but never truly getting to let it’s freak flag fly. There’s big emotional spikes, but the grounded approach does let some of the air out of the balloon. One thing you cannot say about this movie is that it forgets to be funny as the jokes are aplenty, even when the movie slows a tad.
Keeping us engaged the entire time is a lovely ensemble of actors, led by the excellent Jeffrey Wright. Wright is an actor that we can sometimes take for granted or underestimate his ability, despite how much I loved Westworld. As the one of an Emmy and a Tony, he brings his ability to wrap his arms around a character and not let go. Whether it’s the absurdity of him trying to act like a fugitive convict whose written a hit book or dealing with his siblings, Wright is pitch perfect at all times.
Buttressing him are a trio of women (Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, and Issa Rae) whose interactions with Thelonious help shape and guide the picture. It’s always welcome to see Alexander who I felt gave a real humanity to the movie as it was Tasmanian Deviling itself towards the hijinks. John Ortiz and Adam Brody also provide some welcome anchoring in the more farcical scenes of book publishing and optioning. Watching John coach Jeffrey how to be a thug then seeing thug Jeffrey interact with Adam will be a highlight of the year for me.
Sterling K. Brown is in this film and I truly don’t know what to make of the character he played. He’s a bit of a caricature which the movie makes very clear and Jefferson does give the man a solid backstory for his current actions. Additionally, I understand the nature of the character and with Brown in the film, you get some emotionally revelatory scenes thanks to his presence. But the character reminded me so much of Abbie Cornish in Seven Psychopaths. Martin McDonough wanted to make a point with that character about how the token female character gets written off early, so he wrote one that he wrote off early. It’s effective but at what cost? You can write that way, tell the audience that’s exactly what you’re doing and why, but aren’t you still delivering cliched characters to audiences? So while I appreciate getting to see Sterling let a bit loose, I’m a bit lost as to his purpose in the world of this film other than to help Wright’s character when its needed near the end.
As a director, Jefferson acquits himself quite well at bringing lively performances to the screen and not getting in the way of the story. He’s got a great understanding of comedic timing and how to let things live in uncomfortable spaces judgement free. He keeps the story going and American Fiction lands the plane. Though there are certainly some parts that lag, I will take 100 more of these type of movies that manage to be entertaining and thought provoking.