Actors Jeffrey Wright, Erika Alexander, Tracee Ellis Ross, & John Ortiz discuss making AMERICAN FICTION moderated by Janelle Reily at the Pacific Design Center Silver Screen Theater on February 10, 2024.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...)

American Fiction is a 2023 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Cord Jefferson, in his feature directorial debut. Based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett, it follows a frustrated novelist-professor who writes an outlandish satire of stereotypical "black" books, only for it to be mistaken by the liberal elite for serious literature and published to both high sales and critical praise. It stars Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, and Keith David.

It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2023, where it won the People's Choice Award. It received a limited theatrical release by Amazon MGM Studios on December 15, 2023, with an expansion on December 22, 2023. It received positive reviews, with widespread acclaim for Wright's performance.

It was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the American Film Institute and has received numerous accolades. It has received five nominations for the 96th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Wright), and Best Supporting Actor (Brown), as well as two nominations for the 81st Golden Globe Awards, and won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 29th Critics' Choice Awards.

Plot
Thelonious "Monk" Ellison is a highly intelligent African-American upper-class writer and professor in Los Angeles. His novels receive academic praise, but sell poorly, and publishers reject his latest manuscript for not being "black enough". His university places him on temporary leave due to his brashness with students over racial issues and suggests he attend a literary seminar and spend time with family in his hometown of Boston. At the seminar, his panel is poorly attended, yet there is a packed room for an interview with Sintara Golden, whose bestselling novel We's Lives in Da Ghetto panders to black stereotypes.

In Boston, Monk bonds with his mother Agnes, who shows signs of Alzheimer's disease, and sister Lisa, a medical doctor. While having drinks with Monk, Lisa suffers a heart attack and later dies in the hospital. Monk's estranged brother, Cliff, a plastic surgeon, attends Lisa's funeral. Cliff is divorced after his wife caught him cheating with a man; he now engages in frequent drug use and casual sex. Monk meets and starts dating Coraline, a lawyer living across the street.

Frustrated by Sintara's success and the costs of care for his mother, Monk writes My Pafology, a satirical novel mocking the literary clichés expected from black writers: melodramatic plots, deadbeat dads, gang violence, drugs. After submitting it to publishers out of contempt, he is shocked to be offered a $750,000 advance, and his agent Arthur convinces him to adopt the persona of former convict "Stagg R. Leigh". As "Stagg", Monk is offered a movie deal from producer Wiley. In response to insulting comments from publishing executives, Monk tries to sabotage the deal by demanding the title be changed to Fuck. Unexpectedly, the executives agree. Monk is invited to help judge the New England Book Association's Literary Award as part of a "diversity push", and he reluctantly accepts. A fellow judge is Sintara, and Monk is surprised to learn she shares many of his views.

Agnes moves into an assisted-living facility, but adapts poorly. Cliff briefly returns to Boston, but leaves after Agnes makes a homophobic remark. Fuck becomes a bestseller. Coraline, Cliff, and the public remain unaware that "Stagg" is Monk, and the FBI contacts the publisher, believing Stagg is a fugitive, as he has claimed in interviews.

On family housekeeper Lorraine's wedding day, Monk finds Cliff living in Agnes's beach house with two other men: Cliff never left Boston and has been partying and doing drugs, but Lorraine is happy to have him attend the wedding. At the reception, Monk and Cliff discuss the impact of their father's suicide, and Cliff encourages Monk to let people "love all of him."

Monk's publisher submits Fuck for the literary award, forcing him to judge his own novel. The panel's white Limousine liberal judges rave over Fuck, though Sintara calls it "pandering." Monk agrees, but later argues that Sintara's book is "trauma porn" and inauthentic to her African-American middle-class background. Sintara argues that she extensively researched her book by interviewing voiceless people, was "giving the market what it wants," and that it is not her fault if white readers formed stereotypes from her book. Monk is even more offended when he finds that Coraline enjoyed reading Fuck; they argue and break up.

At the award ceremony, Fuck is announced as the winner.