‘American Fiction’ Review: Jeffrey Wright Takes on Narrow Ideas of Black Representation in Sharp Industry Satire
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film Critic In Cord Jefferson’s idea-dense “American Fiction,” no one wants to publish literary professor Thelonious Ellison’s latest novel.
Thelonious — or “Monk” to his friends — has delivered a modern reworking of Aeschylus’ “The Persians” (hardly bestseller material to begin with), but all the industry can see is the color of his skin.
The editors compliment his prose, but want to know what this manuscript “has to do with the Black experience.” In frustration, he dashes off a parody of the thug-life trauma porn the world seems to want, submits it to his agent, and suddenly, he’s the “man of the hour.” If that sounds like the setup for a lit-world “Bamboozled,” then you might be surprised by how even-tempered the film feels.
First published in 2001 (the year after Spike Lee’s confrontational satire came out), Percival Everett’s novel “Erasure” had fangs.
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