When a university professor in the film "American Fiction" is put on leave for his combativeness and impatience with students, he travels home to Boston. There the professor and novelist, played by Jeffrey Wright, embarks on a journey of self-awareness that provides moments of hilarity and tears.
Coming off the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, “American Fiction” premiered this past week at the New Orleans Film Festival. Three years in the making, it is the directorial debut of Cord Jefferson, who also wrote and produced the film adapted from Percival Everett’s novel, “Erasure.”
That book deals with our culture’s propensity to reduce people to atrocious stereotypes, and explores the notion of turning one’s art into a simple commodity by giving in to market forces.
The two-hour movie charmed the packed audience at The Prytania’s Uptown theater with its introspective yet humorous look at just what makes its protagonist, a frustrated novelist named Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, tick.
Ellison is disgusted with the establishment’s profiting from “Black” entertainment that the novelist deems to be no more than offensive clichés. He wrestles with his own desire for authenticity and wonders about pandering to the masses to be successful.
Subject hits home
This is subject matter that hits home for screenwriter and director Jefferson, a former journalist who wrote at one point for the publication Gawker, which focuses on the media.
Writer, producer and director Cord Jefferson's new film was one of the offerings at this year's New Orleans Film Festival.
“It was back when (Barack) Obama was in office, and I was doing a lot of writing about race,” Jefferson said. “At some point, I realized I didn’t want to spend my life commenting on racial tragedy. I left and went into film and television, but the thirst was still there for fictional characters which encompassed the experiences of slaves, crack dealers and Black shootings."
“Erasure,” which Jefferson adapted into the screenplay, is about a novelist who’s being told his work isn't Black enough because it doesn't demonstrate the stereotypical Black experience.
The novel "really spoke to me — because I’d been there,” Jefferson said.
In Jefferson’s film, when Ellison comes across a bestseller by a first-time author (played by Issa Rae) called “We’s Lives In Da Ghetto,” he is horrified.
But his agent tells him this is what publishers want, and, after all, Ellison's latest novel is failing to attract any publishers. Out of spite, Ellison writes “My Pafology” under the pen name Stagg R. Leigh. It embodies every racial stereotype he can envision.
When the prank works
So, when a major publisher surprisingly offers him a big advance, Ellison is forced to invent a character that might have written this first-person account of a felon who’s on the lam.
Eventually, realizing he may have gone too far, Ellison does his best to talk the publishers out of printing his book, asking that the title be changed to “F***.” But the publishers accept his wacky proposal and change the title to the expletive.
The $4 million option for the book’s film rights has Ellison engaged in a bit of self-loathing for reinforcing the very stereotypes he abhors and creating a monster he can no longer control.
Director Jefferson has crafted a comedic satire that shines a spotlight on America’s tendency to pigeonhole and mold people into its own preconceived expectations.
Jefferson always foresaw Wright as the lead from the time he first read Everett's book, but once the actor came on board, Jefferson noted, it was much easier to get the rest of his stellar cast to sign on.
A surprise ending?
That includes Tracee Ellis Ross as Ellison's very candid physician sister, Sterling K. Brown as his dysfunctional plastic surgeon brother, and Leslie Uggams as the matriarch who has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Toss into the mix Erika Alexander as Ellison's surprising new girlfriend, and there are plenty of vibrant characters in the novelist's orbit.
You won’t see the ending coming, so no spoilers here. Suffice it to say that filmgoers were all abuzz as they left the theater, commenting about the “perfect ending” to the delightful and consciousness-raising movie they just enjoyed. Jefferson may easily have another film festival Audience Award on his hands. “American Fiction” hits theaters nationwide Dec. 22.