Friday Matinee: American Fiction

American Fiction, Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut, confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes.  Monk is a frustrated novelist who is tired of the publishing and entertainment businesses profiting from “Black” entertainment based on tired and offensive tropes.  To prove his point, Monk pens an outlandish “Black” book of his own using a pseudonym.  To his surprise, his satirical critique receives a huge offer from the publisher and becomes an immediate success forcing him deeper into the center of the hypocrisy he claims to disdain.  The film received five Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Starring Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. Brown, Erika Alexander, John Ortiz, Leslie Uggams, and Issa Rae.