By: Kimberly Grant

Every writer, especially those of color, should see American Fiction, which won best film at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.

American Fiction is currently in select theaters.  Since it was produced by MGM Amazon Studios, I imagine you’ll be able to see it on Amazon Prime at some point in the near future.

A Contender

The film’s screenwriter/director (Cord Jefferson), main actor (played by Jeffrey Wright), supporting actor (Sterling K. Brown), ensemble cast, and the film itself have won awards in this year’s Black Film Critics’ Awards and beyond.  There is a reason for that.  American Fiction is a can’t-miss story of identity, race, and family.  It also takes an unflinching look at how the Black Community represents itself on the screen and how that translates into how non-blacks see the community.

Jefferson is the award-winning writer for HBO’s Watchmen and now the adaptation of American Fiction (based on the novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett).  According to IMDb.com, the film is about “a novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from ‘black’ entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.”  It’s a great way to say that it’s a film about a writer who goes against his better judgment and writes a novel that sets the Black Community back in the eyes of White America.

Conversation Starter

The award-winning talents of Wright is brought to the role of Ph.D. professor and novelist, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison.  Monk is a prolific author who writes at an elevated level.  Circumstances of his family thrust him into a position of needing a lot of money in a short span of time.  In order to get to that big payday, Monk writes a novel under a pseudonym that’s more about giving into the stereotypes of black people than actual black people.

Much to Monk’s dismay – and this is where the writing genius comes in – people of all races in America love this book.  This book, simply titled “F—“, not only allows Monk to finally get a book deal commiserate with his talents, but the filming rights gets sold to a major studio and the book wins a coveted award.  It’s everything Monk (or any writer for that matter) could ever dream of.  Wrapped up in a package of stereotypical drivel.

As a fiction writer myself, I have struggled with this dichotomy since I started.  When I wrote my first screenplay, people (black and non-black) weren’t interested in the story because it didn’t include black people in the role of low socio-economic backgrounds and down-trodden.  I always felt like there was enough of those stories in circulation that I didn’t need to write a similar one.  I’ve always strived to elevate the black community in my writings.  Fast forward almost two decades, and I’m still writing stories about people of color who live affluent lifestyles and aren’t drug dealers or using slang when they speak.  Unfortunately, those 10 screenplays and 15+ novels are still a hard sell.

The Necessary Conversation

Getting back to American Fiction, Jefferson doesn’t just shine a light on the black stories that get told so often about a fraction of the Black Community.  He also tells a human story of why great black authors have told stories that seemingly set us back as a people.  Think: stories about gang violence and characters who only speak in slang. 

Those stories are what non-blacks use as a reference point for the entire Black Community.  As opposed to stories about Black Wall Street or about the black people who owned houses on Martha’s Vineyard or the black people who shaped the music industry.  Yes, we are seeing more and more of those stories now, but there was a time when those stories were rare and usually directed by a white male.  (Example: The Color Purple of 1985 directed by Steven Spielberg vs. The Color Purple of 2023 directed by Blitz Bazawule)

There is a pivotal conversation between Monk and fellow black author of a “ghetto book” Sintara Golden (Issa Rae).  Below is an excerpt of that conversation, which should make every writer stop and think about what is being put on book shelves and screens.

Monk about “F—” and Sintara’s “We’s Lives In Da Ghetto”: “…Written to satisfy the tastes of guilt-ridden white people.”

Sintara: “…Which critics call ‘important and necessary’, but not well-written.”

Monk: “You write for white publishers fiending for black trauma porn.”

Sintara: “They’re the ones buying the manuscripts and paying the money!”

I will leave this here and let the reader make their own determination.

Attractive Talent

American Fiction is full of talented actors; Rae being one of them.  Tracee Ellis Ross plays Monk’s sister Lisa Ellison.  Brown plays Monk’s younger brother, Clifford Ellison.  Leslie Uggams plays their mother.  Erika Alexander plays Coraline, a love interest for Monk.  And, Keith David makes a cameo as a character in Monk’s book “F—“.

Each one of these characters are important to Monk’s life and challenge him in very human ways.  Monk is a man who is smart, yet can’t make genuine human connections.  As a writer, if you can’t connect to humans through the written word, you can very quickly lose your audience.  The fact that “F—-” managed to speak to so many people, even though it was written to be a joke, says that Monk isn’t a total lost cause.

Every Writer’s Mirror

American Fiction shows what could happen when a writer is desperate enough.  It also reminds writers that we should always safe-guard our work to ensure that our true message is being conveyed.  There’s nothing wrong with stories about people who live the street life; as long as those aren’t the only stories available about the Black Community to the masses. 

That said, the landscape of black fiction has changed in the last few years.  There are more stories in my chosen writing genre (urban fantasy) about people of color; as opposed to ten years ago.  We, as a community, are getting away from what Monk calls “black trauma porn”.  And, it’s about time.  This film is a necessary conversation for black writers to have on the world’s stage, because non-blacks should also understand that the people in the Black Community are more than just the stereotypical characters who use bad grammar and live a life of crime.

You can read more blog posts about the movies I loved (and didn’t love) on my Entertainment Blog.

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