American Fiction

American Fiction is a comedy drama, which was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the American Film Institute. It also received five nominations at the 96^th Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor and winning Best Adapted Screenplay. We at Lamberhurst Cinema also rate it as one of the best films that we saw last year on general release.

Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is a well-read African American writer and professor in Los Angeles.  While his novels receive academic praise, they sell poorly, and publishers reject his latest manuscript for not being “Black enough”. Fed up with the establishment that profits from Black entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes, he uses a pen name to write an outlandish Black book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.

This is a film that has many laugh out loud moments arising from a clever screenplay which brings into focus political correctness, the ridiculous stereotyping of some sectors of society, and others response to it.  The film is multi-dimensional with poignant moments as Monk deals with family relationships, his own shortcomings and challenges with his mother’s dementia diagnosis.