American Fiction is about a writer who decides to change his style of writing when his latest title fails to find a home with a publisher in this film from Warner Brothers.
The folks at Warner Brothers were kind enough to send us a copy of American Fiction, a tale about a writer named Monk. Monk is a published author and professor at a university in Los Angeles. After seeing the success of another writer for pandering to the market by changing the language of her book to make it more “real”, he decides to do the same in an attempt at showing the industry how idiotic they can be. His agent even argues against submitting the book only to be shocked at how quickly it has sold.
The film was written and directed by Cord Jefferson, who was one of the writers on The Good Place. Had I known about this connection I might have expected a very different film. After watching some of the trailers I had believed this film to be a comedy of sorts and on IMDB is listed as one as well. There are some minor comedic moments but I don’t feel like this was a comedy in the slightest even when it’s being a little silly. That being said, calling it a drama doesn’t feel right either.
As someone that has written and published a book, dealing with the market and trying to build my own success, I felt like this film was written for people like me in mind. It reminds us that as a writer, the market can chase things that make absolutely no sense. I was glued to the film every step of the way. This film was spellbinding and wasn’t just good, it was utterly fucking brilliant. I sincerely hope we see more films from Jefferson.
