Unfortunately, there aren't many adult comedies made anymore like American Fiction, an intelligent and very well-acted foray into the contemporary debate on racism. The film is inspired by the novel x (this is how it was titled in Spain, the original is Erasure), by the postmodern novelist Percival Everett, one of the most unique authors of current American fiction. He is also one of the most prophetic: x It was published in 2001, but what it tells sounds, 23 years later, rabidly current: a story that puts its finger on the sore spot of stereotypes and fallacies of racial diversity within the American cultural industry, specifically in the publishing market. Although some gags may err on the side of local, Cord Jefferson's feature debut transcends its borders thanks to its acidic look at white opportunism and condescension.
Thelonious monk Ellison, played by a brilliant Jeffrey Wright, is a black professor and writer who grew up in a family of doctors in Boston and is fed up with the label “African-American author” and his books not being “black enough.” In one of the best gags in the film, he gets angry when he discovers that one of his titles, a revision of a Greek myth, ends up in the bookstore in the African American Studies section, with no more justification than the color of its author's skin. .
In view of his lack of success in a market that pigeonholes (and sells) writers for extra-literary reasons, Ellison (named in a nod to the novelist Ralph Ellison) decides to write a novel that is a mockery of the commonplaces about his own: crack, rap, crime, slang… The surprise comes when this string of clichés seduces white critics and editors (without a doubt, the worst off in the film). So Monk (the nickname is another nod, this time to jazz pianist Thelonious Monk), as Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie (1982)—Sydney Pollack's great romantic comedy—he will find himself trapped in his new, and this time successful, identity.
Although it is a rather flat film visually, American Fiction It is sustained thanks to its scathing script and a good cast, with Wright in the lead, but with wonderful supporting roles, such as Sterling K. Brown as the protagonist's gay brother or Tracee Ellis Ross as his sister. Although it is Wright who carries all the weight of a film that slides too quickly into the family drama and the midlife crisis of his character.
Its five Oscar nominations – best film, lead and supporting actor, adapted screenplay and soundtrack – are one of the surprises of the Hollywood awards ceremony. It is the last title that remained to be released in Spain, although it goes directly to a platform of streaming and without the hype it deserves for its ability to make people laugh with serious issues; issues such as the management of white guilt, works that, despite being bad, are considered “important and necessary” or how black culture makes money in literature, cinema or fashion by perpetuating those same stereotypes.
American Fiction
Address: Cord Jefferson.
Performers: Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Sterling K. Brown.
Gender: comedy. United States, 2023.
Platform: Prime Video.
Premiere: February 28th.
Duration: 117 minutes.
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