Our Review
- Jeffrey Wright, Skyler Wright, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross,
- February 2nd 2024
- Cord Jefferson
Jeffrey Wright plays author Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison, who achieves great success when he writes a stereotypical Black story.
American Fiction is one of the last Best Picture Oscar nominee to reach our shores before the big ceremony in March.
Cord Jefferson’s film, based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, stars Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison, an author trying to get his next novel published, without much success.
As a joke-slash-experiment, Monk writes My Pafology, a fake memoir by convict Stagg R. Leigh. Monk becomes conflicted when his “trash” novel becomes a hit with publishers and movie producers – he could do with the money but he would be going against his principles and perpetuating Black stereotypes.
Ashamed of what he’s done, Monk keeps the novel and his pseudonym under wraps and effectively starts living a double life. He also has to make appearances as Leigh in meetings and transforms from a quiet intellectual into a hardened street thug.
This cleverly-written satire explores what ‘Black...
