Jeffrey Wright stars in director Cord Jefferson’s angry, lacerating comedy.
Swimming in an ocean against the current, Monk might be forgiven for feeling exasperated by modern turns toward political correctness.
A college professor of literature, he must endure a student’s tearful tirade of complaint during a lecture in which he used ‘the n-word.’ Monk is a middle-aged Black man; she is a young white woman. Is she even entitled to have any opinion?
Questionable ideas and potent questions begin brewing immediately in Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, which the director adapted from Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, first published in 2001. Jefferson began his career as a journalist before becoming a writer for television, which likely informed his screenplay, filled as it is with a lively set of characters and a vivid sense of cordial discord, tempering the anger at the heart of the story.
Jeffrey Wright conveys the thinly hidden, burning cauldron that lies within Monk. He is continually reminded by circumstances and his own inclination toward civility to ameliorate his anger as a Black man who must deal with a world of clueless white people. As his everyday frustrations accumulate, and as family pressures construct an ever-tightening box around him, he unleashes his anger, not in actions, but in words.
After all, he is, first, a man of (literal) letters, a novelist for some years and a modicum of success, who has been informed by his trusty literary agent Arthur (John Ortiz) that his latest manuscript has been rejected by publishers because it isn’t ‘Black enough,’ while he seethes about the success of a popular novel by Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) that trumps its ‘Blackness’ by playing into the hands of guilty white people, using outrageously offensive stereotypes about Black people, i.e., Black people are all criminals and/or rappers and/or getting pregnant all the time.
It’s funny because it’s true.
Monk writes his own version of a ‘Black novel,’ fueled by his own anger and his desperation to provide a greater measure of care for his mother, Agnes (Leslie Uggams), who has begun deteriorating due to dementia. His brother, Cliff (Sterling K. Brown), has recently come out as gay and is celebrating his recognition of his own identity, while also suffering the breakup of his marriage.
Monk is shocked to see his book taken seriously and publishes it under a pen name, which prompts him to wrestle further with questions of his own identity, especially since he has begun a relationship with new neighbor Caroline (Erika Alexander). Events continue to spiral out of control, as Monk continues to ‘fail upward,’ and more people — mostly white, but also Black — chime in on the discourse that grows from the publication of Monk’s book.
Jeffrey Wright is quite magnificent, fleshing out the nuances of his character in a mesmerizing manner. John Ortiz and Sterling K. Brown, especially, bring their characters to flesh and blood; the entire cast is quite good.
In his directorial debut, Cord Jefferson hits every note perfectly, bringing it all to a conclusion that is meaningful, thoughtful, and satisfying. American Fiction is one of the best pictures of this or any other year.
The film opens Friday, January 5, in Dallas theaters. For more information about the film, visit the official site.
Dallas Film Now. 