American Fiction: Movie Review

Cast: Jeffery Wright, Sterling K Brown, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross
Director: Cord Jefferson

Not quite the savage satire that's been promised, but still engaging thanks to great performances from Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K Brown, American Fiction is an intelligent, well-acted drama that is more solid than spectacular.

Wright is resilient novelist Thelonious Monk, a frustrated writer whose contempt for people is palpable and forces him to take a break from his teaching post. Confronted by family issues, Monk revives his ailing career by writing a savage novel that takes down stereotypes of the black experience.

But against his every hope, the book becomes a bestseller, and Monk finds himself stuck in the world he's created - and raged against.

There's a suppressed anger at play here, which Wright palpably turns into something eminently watchable and manages to turn the prickliness into something that's relatable and societal.

But whereas a film like Boots Riley's scabrous Sorry To Bother You goes to extremes in its satire, it's in the subtleties of American Fiction where the successes come from. Lacing the narrative with more family matters and concerns prove to be more effective, and while there are moments that feel heavy-handed, it's Wright's performance that makes American Fiction a drama to watch.

There is an irony here in the story of the black experience that the women of the place are sidelined throughout in favour of the men, and perhaps that's some of the movie's downfall, but while its savagery is contained, American Fiction's bite is still there in smaller moments.

American Fiction is streaming now on Prime Video.