American Fiction movie storyline. Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Wright) is a respected author and professor of English literature. But his impatience with his students’ cultural sensitivities is threatening his academic standing, while his latest novel is failing to attract publishers; they claim Monk’s writing “isn’t Black enough.”
He travels to his hometown of Boston to participate in a literary festival where all eyes are on the first-time author of a bestseller titled We’s Lives In Da Ghetto, a book Monk dismisses as pandering to readers seeking stereotypical stories of Black misery. Meanwhile, Monk’s family experiences tragedy, and his ailing mother requires a level of care neither he nor his trainwreck of a brother (Sterling K. Brown) can afford.
One night, in a fit of spite, Monk concocts a pseudonymous novel embodying every Black cliché he can imagine. His agent submits it to a major publisher who immediately offers the biggest advance Monk’s ever seen. As the novel is rushed to the printers and Hollywood comes courting, Monk must reckon with a monster of his own making.
Adapted from Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut is a wildly entertaining send-up of our hunger for so-called authenticity. Featuring stellar supporting turns from Issa Rae and Erika Alexander, and a string of cheeky cameos, American Fiction is a timely reflection on the fictions we tell ourselves about race, progress, and community.
Jeffrey Wright stars in Cord Jefferson’s adaptation of Percival Everett’s Erasure — a wicked satire about the commodification of marginalized voices and a portrait of an artist forced to re-examine his integrity.
Starring Jeffrey Wright in one of his most beautifully nuanced performances, American Fiction is both a wickedly smart satire about the commodification of marginalized voices and a bittersweet portrait of an artist forced to re-examine the terms of his integrity.
American Fiction is an upcoming American drama film written and directed by Cord Jefferson (in his feature directorial debut), based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett. The film stars Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Sterling K. Brown, Myra Lucretia Taylor, John Ortiz, Issa Rae, and Adam Brody. It premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, and released theatrically by Orion Pictures through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
American Fiction (2023)
Directed by: Cord Jefferson
Starring: Elle Sciore, Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Sterling K. Brown, Myra Lucretia Taylor, John Ortiz, Issa Rae, Adam Brody, Jenn Harris
Screenplay by: Cord Jefferson
Production Design by: Jonathan Guggenheim
Cinematography by: Cristina Dunlap
Film Editing by: Hilda Rasula
Costume Design by: Rudy Mance
Set Decoration by: Kyra Friedman Curcio
Art Direction by: Maddy Young
Music by: Laura Karpman
MPAA Rating: R for language throughout, some drug use, sexual references and brief violence.
Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists Releasing
Release Date: September 2023 (TIFF), December 22, 2023 (United States)
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