American Fiction-More Drama Than Comedy, But Good-Hearted

Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious "Monk" Ellison in 'American Fiction.' Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.

Good afternoon, everybody. Since I'm learning more about screenwriting, specifically the kind that wins Academy Awards, I decided to give 'American Fiction' another go. At first, I wasn't into it, maybe because I didn't like the whole offensive racist tropes or drama between Jeffrey Wright's character and his family. But now, I see that the appeal of the film is that it shows how adults of different colors are still learning how to deal with said racist tropes and put a positive spin on stereotypes of fictional people of color, while also handling their own internal drama.

Tracee Ellis Ross as Lisa Ellison and Leslie Uggams as Agnes Ellison in 'American Fiction.' Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.

Sterling K. Brown as Clifford "Cliff" Ellison from 'American Fiction.' Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.

'American Fiction' tells the story of Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, played by Jeffrey Wright, a novelist-professor tired of literary pieces of negative stereotypes of African-Americans. But when he's called to Massachusetts to deal with some affairs with his mother, Agnes, sister, Lisa, and brother Cliff, played by Leslie Uggams, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Sterling K. Brown, respectively, he writes a satire book that mocks negative stereotypes of African-Americans, and it becomes a huge success that he's not proud of. 

As I said earlier, I wasn't really into 'American Fiction.' After rewatching it, for probably the first two-thirds of the film, I felt the humor was too offensive and dark. But around 1:27:00, the camera shifted from focusing on his frustration with his new novel to focusing on pictures of his family. The thing is, he had a dad who had constant affairs during his childhood, leading to a divorce from his mother. He's estranged from his siblings partly because he thought highly of their father. Back to the pictures, I think they represented that he wants to focus on the happier parts of life. Good work with the camera, and good work with the jazz piano by Laura Karpman.

 As for Brown's work in 'Marshall' and 'Black Panther,' I saw his character of Cliff as another tragic character. This time, it was because he was divorced when his wife discovered he was gay, his children hate him, his father didn't know he was gay or was happy for him before he died, and with her Alzheimer's, his mother didn't acknowledge he was gay, either. Though he didn't shed any tears, I could tell Brown was sad as he left her room

Cliff was even sadder when the family's housekeeper, Louise, gave him love later on, but it was a good sad. Though he crashed her wedding preparations with partying with other men, Louise told Cliff, "You can't impose. You're family."

Erika Alexander as Coraline and Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious "Monk" Ellison in 'American Fiction.' Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.

Later at said wedding, Cliff noticed how Monk pushed his love interest, Coraline, played by Erika Alexander, away with his troubles with his self and work. When they met, he told Coraline, "This family will break your heart," referencing their father, but at the wedding, Cliff told Monk that he was not his father, that "People want to love you, Monk. You should let them love all of you." Then there's a close-up of their brotherly love. 

When Monk wrote his next book, he was talking about a deadbeat dad played by Keith David and his gangster son blaming him for his wrecked life. Perhaps that's why he made the satire, to get over the trouble with his own family. And that's why the film seemed more drama than comedy to me, because Monk was trying to get over his own internal drama rather than simple antagonism by stereotypes of blacks in history.

That's another thing; Monk is his own antagonist because he's trying to write about bad person of color stories that will sell and give him prestige, but more than that, he won't let anyone love him. And even after he makes more money off his writing, he doesn't feel fulfilled. But I guess that's one way the film won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, because it wasn't a predictable "Man meets woman, falls in love with woman, makes good, clean money, and rides off into the sunset" script.

In the end, I didn't think American Fiction was funny, and I would've preferred a nicer ending. But in the end, Monk was allowing himself to heal from his own trauma, even if it couldn't translate to some of his work. The other things to appreciate besides those were the nice views of the beach community at Quincy, Massachusetts.

Stream 'American Fiction' on Prime Video, and comment on what you think of my take.