'American Fiction': neither rap nor crack, the black comedy that mocks white condescension

Unfortunately, not many adult comedies like

American Fiction,

an intelligent and very well-acted foray into the contemporary debate on racism, are made anymore.

The film is

inspired

by

the

novel

It

is also one of the most prophetic

: American culture, specifically in the publishing market.

Although some

gags

may be local, Cord Jefferson's feature debut transcends its borders thanks to its acidic look at opportunism and white condescension.

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In search of success through an embarrassing novel

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 that his books are not “black enough.” .

In one of the best gags of 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).

In such a way that Monk (the nickname is another nod, this time to the jazz pianist Thelonious Monk), like Dustin Hoffman in

Tootsie

(1982) —Sydney Pollack's brilliant romantic comedy—, will find himself trapped in his new, and this time he will , successful identity.

Erika Alexander and Jeffrey Wright, in 'American Fiction'.Claire Folger (Claire Folger)

Although it is a rather flat film visually,

American Fiction

is sustained thanks to its scathing script and a good cast, with Wright at the helm, but with wonderful secondary characters, such as Sterling K. Brown as the protagonist's gay brother or Tracee Ellis Ross, in her sister's.

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.

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Read all the movie reviews here

Fiction It is the last title that remained to be released in Spain, although it is going directly to a

streaming

platform 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

Director:

Cord Jefferson.

Starring:

Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Sterling K. Brown.

Comedy genre

.

United States, 2023.

Platform:

Prime Video.

Premiere:

February 28.

Duration: 117 minutes.

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