“He’s changing the narrative.” The new comedy, “American Fiction,” features a wickedly sharp and bitingly funny premise. The feature-length directorial debut of Cord Jefferson, a producer and writer on acclaimed series such as “Watchmen,” “Station Eleven” and “Master Of None,” the film is adapted from Percival Everett’s “Erasure,” a brilliant indictment of the way modern culture handles race, a pointed satire about the commodification of marginalized voices and a writer forced to confront himself and his own creative integrity.
Jeffrey Wright (“Westworld,” “The French Dispatch,” “Batman”) stars as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a struggling novelist whose agent is telling him his books are not “black enough.” Fed up with hearing this, watching lesser books outsell him, and unhappy with how the establishment profits from “Black” entertainment, he uses a pen name to write a lowest-common-denominator book that becomes a huge hit, propelling him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain (“The dumber I behave, the richer I get,” Wright laments in one scene in the movie).
“American Fiction” was such a hit at the Toronto International Film Festival this fall, where it made its world premiere, the movie won the coveted People’s Choice Award, a prize that often bodes well for Best Picture Oscar chances.
Along with Wright, the star-studded cast includes Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David, with Issa Rae and Sterling K. Brown.
Here’s the official synopsis:
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.
Producers on the film include Ben LeClair, p.g.a., Nikos Karamigios, p.g.a., Cord Jefferson, p.g.a., Jermaine Johnson, p.g.a., and exec producers such as Rian Johnson, Ram Bergman, Percival Everett, and Michael Bowes.
“American Fiction” opens in select theaters on December 15 and begins its expansion on
December 22. Check out this exclusive first-look featurette featuring members of the “American Fiction” cast discussing the film’s wit and thought-provoking ideas and commentary on race, Black identity, culture, and more.