American Fiction (2023)

R, almost exclusively for language.  Not only that, but the language in this movie is almost used ironically.  Because Monk has to put on this character, he uses curse words to hide behind the fact that he knows almost nothing of this lifestyle.  The movie does have violence, as Monk imagines someone being shot to death.  There is some drug use in the movie, coupled with discussions of sexuality.  R.

DIRECTOR:  Cord Jefferson

"You know, this movie is making fun of you."  I know, my wife.  I know.  That's the thing about liberals.  They tend to be able to laugh at themselves pretty well.  At least I do.  The topic of race, as grounded as it is in the past with bigotry springing up to the present, is a deep and many-faceted discussion.  When I used to teach Things Fall Apart, we would study the TED talk "The Dangers of a Single Story."  There were two main ideas:  people of a culture should have the definitive voice in that culture and that a culture cannot be defined by a single voice.  Ultimately, American Fiction is the natural progression of this idea.  As much as we want Black voices to speak out about injustice and oppression, Black voices cannot be only about injustice and oppression.

I mean, some of you have to be scoffing at the obvious right now.  I think you kind of are supposed to. By the way, I wasn't prepped for two great surprise movies in the Best Picture categories.  The two movies that I probably enjoyed most out of the Best Picture category are American Fiction and The Holdovers.  Maybe I'm just in the mood for a tightly knit dramedy.  I knew the conceit of American Fiction before watching it.  I mean, the trailers were everywhere.  Just by watching YouTube every so often, you'd catch one of these trailers.  I liked the idea, but I thought of the concept as limted.  But American Fiction is the right level of smart in all the ways that count.  I kind of pigeonholed American Fiction into a subcategory of film: the deceit film.  I don't think that's an actual term, so let me spell out what I mean by "deceit film".  Using dramatic irony to tell a story, the film revolves around a lie.  In this case, we have the lie that spirals out of control, leading the protagonist to gain fame and notoriety, ultimately having to deal with the downfall and exposure of the deceit.

The funny thing is...there really isn't any exposure. God bless this movie for messing with me.  I thought I had the whole thing written out in my head.  Monk, as far as he pushes the lie, never really gets caught doing it.  I mean, we know that he shares the reality of the novel with Wiley, who will be making the story of his deceit into a movie.  But we don't actually deal with any of the consequences of Monk's lies.  Monk actually seems pretty happy towards the end of the movie, not because his conscience is cleared about the lies.  The movie steers away from the guilt of lying to the point of Monk making peace with his choices to write a parody book to begin with.  Monk is the kind of character I want to write, by the way.  I sympathize with Monk.  He's a great anchor for this movie (and points to Jeffrey Wright for being just a top notch actor, which I hope to address more in this blog).  Monk is a character who is a little bit caustic, but that comes out of being frustrated, not being a bad person.  He's passionate about quality writing and the world isn't allowing him to express quality writing because we live in airport bookstore world.  (OH!  To be a published author whose books crush at an airport! His lamentations are my dreams!)

Now, that's even an oversimplification of the character.  See, Monk could come across as completely unlikable.  But Monk, for all of his self-involvement, is actually quite vulnerable as a character.  He made a choice to leave his family.  It's one of his defining moments.  He wanted to become a writer, so he left behind all of those things that distracted him from becoming the best writer he could be.  On one end, it could be seen as selfish.  On the other, it could be seen as practical.  But when Monk is back to being entrenched with the people in his life, he instantly steps up to the plate.  His sister's death redefined him as a person.  As such, he cares for his mother when his brother Cliff holds resentment towards her.  (Note:  I don't know if it shocks you that Sterling K. Brown is also amazing.)  But he snaps at people.  Again, I love me a complex character.  And people are always diagnosing him. I see this guy with a lot on his plate being awful to people that he cares for.  I get it.  I hope that Monk is not me in that regard, but it's incredibly sympathetic, even if you want to scream at him a bit. 

It's a film about being a writer and I can't deny that.  But it is also a story about family and wanting to take care of yourself.  Monk has a million reasons to lie about the book he wrote.  American Fiction creates a compelling case for immorality.  He technically doesn't do anything illegal, as far as I understand.  Perhaps there's an element of fraud, creating the characters of Stagg to inspire readers to purchase a convict's book.  But really, it's just all in bad form the behavior he's illiciting.  But Monk is his own worst critic.  He's the reigning defender of good writing, of academic writing.  His character faces the greatest rebuke of his actions: he has contributed to the filth of society.  

Maybe that's what makes the conversation with Sintara so fascinating.  Throughout the movie, Monk goes from loathing Sintara to seemingly admiring her.  She shares his concerns about the role of Black fiction, especially that which is written to absolve white guilt.  They are the only two who think that the book is trash.  But Monk is a character who cannot let things go.  After all, it is the content of Sintara's novel that he's parodying to begin with. He loathes the notion of her novel, with misspellings and the archetypal Black characters running throughout.  But Sintara creates something almost undigestable with her argument.  She both absolutely agrees with Monk about the role of Black voices in fiction while being abhorred at how simplistic Monk's views on Black fiction are.  Monk wrote his book as a parody.  He was angry and venting.  I mean, he clearly took a long time to get that out of his system.  I wrote the first draft of my book in two months, fast by anyone's standards.  Two months to vent is a long time, especially as a joke.  (Question: he still gave his agent a copy of the book that he didn't want to sell?) 

Both Monk and Sintara have points during that argument.  If the point of writing is to find the authentic voice, Sintara's book would have a certain degree of blasphemy.  She's more authentic than Monk is.  I mean, she is putting her own face and history out there, unlike Monk who creates Stagg to cover his own shame.  But she is writing someone else's story without injecting any of the self into the story. But she's also saying that we should be lifting authentic stories of adversity up.  She says that people like her characters exist.  She comes from a place of thorough research, not just gut instincts, borrowing from pop culture to giggle at lesser writing.  It's all so complicated and I love that it doesn't have a right answer.  As much as that argument doesn't have an answer, I end up mostly on Sintara's side in that fight.  

There's just so much to unpack.  I also can't help but love that this is an English teacher's movie.  Golly, talking about books and what makes books work.  Part of me is on the outside, looking in.  It's a world that I desperately want to be involved in.

I said that I wanted to talk about Jeffrey Wright in this movie before I close up.  Jeffrey Wright might be one of the most adept and powerful actors we have in a generation.  There are so many great actors out there, including Sterling K. Brown, whom I mentioned earlier.  Not to diminsh from Brown's role in this, but Brown plays variations of a type.  He does this very well.  He's often confrontational and charismatic.  But Wright is all over the place with his choices of roles.  He does genre as well as subdued incredibly well.  You really can put that guy in everything and he absolutely crushes it.  This felt like he was rounding out the Bingo card with great and varied performances.  He just nails every scene and I'm continually impressed.  

American Fiction works on all levels.  I wouldn't hate to see this do well at the Academy Awards.