![]() ![]() ![]() It's a tradition that functions in part as an act of resistance against the very industries that limit portrayals of Blackness. This is far from a "bad" thing - it's actually the film's most transgressive facet - but a question arose for me as to the creative limitations of this genre of film as cultural critique. That's the lurid backstory they've concocted for this fake writer - because, as Arthur points out, the profession of fact-checking is basically dead: "They hardly pay editors anymore."ĭespite the film's undeniable intelligence, it is its ambiguous conclusion, which diverges from its source material, that is both curious and tougher to digest. Leigh is not, in fact, a wanted fugitive. Very darkly comic is Arthur's complete lack of concern that the publisher will find out Stagg R. There are also direct and indirect references in American Fiction to Tyler Perry and the novel Push by Sapphire, about a pregnant and impoverished teenager, that inspired the movie Precious (which, it's probably worth noting, Perry co-produced).Īnd so with regards to its premise, it feels like a stretch to call Jefferson's film daring or pioneering, though it is funny and spot-on in its depiction of the publishing industry. There's no need to squint to see Monk's frustrated forebears: aspiring actor Bobby Taylor in Hollywood Shuffle, the fictional hip-hop group in CB4, TV writer Pierre Delacroix in Bamboozled, and many more. Only his agent Arthur (John Ortiz) knows the truth. It's swept up by a big corporate publisher, a movie producer, and the reading public, much to Monk's existential angst and his financial benefit. Leigh." (The profane word is spelled out in the film.) It's meant to be a twisted joke but ends up netting him a huge offer. My Pafology - later retitled F*** - is a ghetto melodrama penned under the sly pseudonym " Stagg R. Fed up with multiple rejections of his latest esoteric manuscript, he sets out to write the "Blackest" novel he can imagine, just to prove a point about the industry's shallow interest in Black storytelling. Like a plethora of real and fictional creatives before him, novelist Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, played by Jeffrey Wright in one of his finest roles to date, initially resists the confines of stereotypical Blackness until he's too desperate to continue resisting. It's based on Percival Everett's savvy novel Erasure,which was first published more than two decades ago, but naturally feels as relevant as ever, what with the pervasiveness of racial tropes and all the accompanying discourse. Cord Jefferson's thought-provoking directorial debut American Fiction is the latest iteration. Understanding this reality helps explain why every era gets at least one or two notable social satires wrestling with the tension between Black art and commerce (also known as "selling out"). ![]() Toni Morrison referred to racism as a means of " distraction," a way to keep marginalized people "explaining, over and over again, reason for being." This essay contains spoilers for the new film American Fiction.Ī thing about racial stereotypes in America is their stubborn pervasiveness - how they're impossible to eradicate completely even as societal ideals and sensitivities progress over time how all-consuming they can remain, keeping Black artists on the defensive and in constant need of addressing and defying them in their work.
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