The book this film is based on was published in 2001, yet, as AMERICAN FICTION points out with wit and weary melancholy, here we are in 2023 with nothing much changed as far as mass-marketing of African-American identity. The script is sprightly, with interweaving narratives and metanarratives, with the central character writing a story within a story, which soon develops into a film within a film. That sounds as though it might be pretentiously arty, but it isn't at all. It's often very funny. But because there is a central story of great poignancy, led tenderly by Leslie Uggams, as the protagonist's mother, and Myra. Lucretia Taylor as her longtime help and friend, the movie as a whole is less daunting, and therefore perhaps less challanging, then a piece by, say, Charlie Kauffman, who might have been much more astringent with the same material. So, less austere than it might have been, but intelligent all the same, compassionate and entertaining. The cast is excellent throughout. Jeffery Wright, who is a wonderful actor, really ought to get an Oscar nomination for his work in the central role, but the Academy never recognises fine acting in anything other than Grand movies. This is simply a good movie.
Review of American Fiction
