Friday Night Flicks: American Fiction
American Fiction is Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut and one of our favorite movies of the year. The film follows Thelonious “Monk” Jefferson — played by perfectly by Jeffery Wright — who is a frustrated African-American novelist and professor who writes an outlandish satire of stereotypical "Black" books, only for it to be mistaken for serious literature and published to high sales and critical praise. The film dips into a variety of contradictory and topical issues and does so with sophistication and humor. Loved this movie, and stoked Cliff recommended it this week. Below are his notes.
Recently just watched American Fiction. I thought it was pretty funny and kind of resonated with what the main character Monk played by Jeffrey Wright went through. Jeff is actually a passionate surfer and I think was at the Triple Crown or something like that last year. Anyway, it was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture last year but lost to Oppenheimer.—Cliff Kapono
