I enjoyed this comedy-drama. The blurbs will tell you it’s about a professor (Monk) who writes a “black” novel under a pseudonym and is too embarrassed (and horrified) by its success to come clean as the author. But the movie is only somewhat about that. More poignant are the individual storylines of Monk’s family and friends, and how they interact with each other.
It’s a different movie, and a good one. It was on the Oscar circuit (and won best screenplay, I think) but it’s not pretentious or award-baity. Hope you enjoy.
Official blurb:
AMERICAN FICTION is Cord Jefferson’s hilarious directorial debut, which confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.
