Logline of American Fiction: Fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that relies on offensive tropes, a frustrated novelist decides to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own, one that propels him to the heart of the hypocrisy he disdains.
Script Can Be Found Here
American Fiction Summary:
American Fiction begins with Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), an African-American professor at USC, who is contending with the bizarre antics of woke academia (i.e., a white student is more triggered about the n-word than he is). Since he’s been on edge lately, the faculty thinks it would be best if he went to Boston to attend a book festival as a featured speaker and to see his family. While in Boston, he gets a call from his agent Arthur essentially saying that his most recent book has been rejected for ostensibly not being Black enough. His event at the book festival is not very well-attended; instead, it seems like all of the attention is on Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), who has written a book that verges on parody for its use of Black vernacular and accent. She (and her book) seem to be giving the white establishment what they’re looking for.
He picks up his sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross), who works at Planned Parenthood, and they drive to their mother Agnes (Leslie Uggams)’s house, who seems to be suffering from dementia. As they sit in a Cambridge restaurant, Lisa mentions how their father cheated on their mother with a white woman. Afterwards, Monk goes to a bookstore and asks to see his book, and the clerk takes him to the African-American section. He takes them and puts them near Contemporary Fiction.
He and Lisa talk about their mom’s financial situation and that she’s not going to get any better. While they’re talking, Lisa suffers from a heart attack and passes away. They later scatter Lisa’s ashes by the beach with Cliff (Sterling K. Brown), Monk’s and Lisa’s brother in attendance. Afterwards, Monk notices that his mother is slipping further into dementia.
When Monk takes his mother to the doctor’s office, he sees Sintara’s positive reviews and press coverage basically screaming at him. That night, he decides to write a super “black” novel called My Pafology under a pen name/pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh. The characters come to life in front of him as he writes. A few weeks/months later, he gets a call from Arthur, at first, who can’t send out this work under the pseudonym/identity, but Monk talks him into it (as Monk and his siblings work to get their mom’s bills paid). Eventually, Arthur tells Monk that they sold his book for $750,000, which presumably helps fund Agnes to live at the retirement community.
Thelonious gets hired to judge for the Literary Award. Arthur sets up a meeting with Wiley Valdespino (Adam Brody). As Stagg, he goes to meet Wiley, who wants to work with him on a feature called Plantation Annihilation. Monk sees an ambulance stop across the street to Arthur’s office and bolts; luckily, it wasn’t his mom. Learns that Wiley’s offering $4M for the rights to My Pafology/Fuck (partly because Wiley believes that Monk is so street and on the run).
Monk meets the other writers (including Sintara) who are judging the Literary Awards; they talk about how stupid it is to pit art against art for awards. Monk helps Agnes settle into the retirement home. Once Fuck is released, there’s a giant p.r. push, including Stagg appearing in shadow at a Wendy Williams-like show. He’s become so popular that the FBI is now looking for him. For the Literary Award judging panel, all of the writers deliberate about the works being considered and, afterwards, Monk talks with Sintara, who still doesn’t know about Stagg’s true identity, about pandering. Sintara seems unapologetic and is interested more in writing about what interests people. When the winner of the Literary Award is announced, Monk comes up and is about to make a confession. There’s a cut to Plantation Annihilation, the feature Monk and Wiley are working on. They debate the ending before another cut where Monk is about to confess at the Literary Award. He’s about to confess when the FBI storms the stage. Another cut of Wiley and and Monk sit at the Plantation Annihilation stage debate the ending before they end the day. Monk meets Cliff on the lot; as they drive away, he and an extra dressed as a slave exchange a nod/peace sign.
What does “American Fiction” do well?
- Unique opening/grabber. American Fiction does a brilliant job of introducing protagonist, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, as a USC professor who wrestles with the unique contradictions of woke academia: having written “The Artificial N-word” on the board, he’s somewhat shocked/incredulous that 19-year-old white Brittany takes incredible umbrage to it and even storms out of the classroom. This serves as a grabber because the author introduces us to the inherent weirdness of this world – how is it that just the white girl is offended? We’re left wondering, how is this Black character supposed to navigate it?
- Protagonist has a unique, race-related struggle. In his work, Thelonious is trying to take Western literature and adapt it to a Black perspective (i.e., adapting Aeschylus), but, per his agent, that’s not what will sell. “They want a black book,” Monk concludes. He’s trying to follow his own voice and interests, but by not conforming to supposed white norms (or market demands), he’s forced to play a circumscribed role. (And what would that role be, you wonder…?)
- Unique race-related antagonist. At the Book Festival, he encounters Sintara Golden, the up-and-comer who is more than happy to tap into Black stereotypes with We’s Lives in Da Ghetto. From Monk’s point-of-view, she is shameless in pandering to the white audience’s thirst for “real” stories of the African-American experience (besides being a presumed best-seller, there also seems to be a TV adaptation in the works). Clearly, Sintara knows the role she’s supposed to play (per establishment rules), and she’s using it to her advantage. We see Monk’s ire when he goes to the bookstore, finds his books listed in the African-American section, and he moves them all to Contemporary Fiction, near Sintara’s. What this shows is that playing by the rules of the white establishment (Sintara) gets you included (Contemporary Fiction); being true to yourself, your voice, and your race gets you relegated to the otherized section (African-American Studies).
- Characters coming to life. A writer sitting at a typewriter is static (and static scenes tend not to work on film especially for long periods of time). What works about when Monk sits down to write My Pafology by his pen name/alter-ego Stagg R. Leigh is that the characters of Van Go Jenkins and Willy the Wonker come to life around him. What’s brilliant about this is that it solves the problem of a static scene while extending the limits of the film medium. We see what’s going on in Monk’s head.
- Unfair circumstances justify the protagonist’s morally dubious choices. Here’s the thing: audiences typically don’t like for their protagonists to do horrible things like lie, cheat, steal, or kill unless those actions are justified. Here, Monk is willing to create a pen name/alter ego of a convict because that’s the story he thinks the educated culture wants to hear; as he mentions to Coraline, “Books like this reduce us, and they do it over and over again, because too many white people — and people, apparently, like you– devour this slop like pigs at a dumpster to stay current at fucking cocktail parties or whatever.” After Lisa’s death, it’s clear that the surviving siblings need money so that Agnes will be cared for in a retirement home. Given that Monk’s original, more authentic work was rejected (and Sintara’s is a smashing, lucrative success), he has no other choice in this world but to essentially commit fraud.
- Critiquing the establishment while portraying a new alternative. One of the reasons why Monk’s family takes up so much screentime is because their well-developed characters and relationships offer alternatives to the ghettoized characters that Monk abhors. All of the people in Monk’s family and friend orbit are upper middle class and well-educated (although not perfect). Showing them gives the audience a new alternative to think about when it comes to modern Black narratives.
- False, self-referential ending. When Monk goes up to accept the Literary Award on behalf of Stagg R. Leigh, we think he’s going to give an apology before there’s a cut to Plantation Annihilation, the movie between him and Wiley. They argue about how to end it, which perfectly fits with American Fiction’s self-referentiality. Even though they are commenting on the ending of Plantation Annihilation, they might as well be commenting on the end of American Fiction.
- Final image. The script notes, As Cliff starts the car, Monk turns to his right and sees a SLAVE EXTRA from “Plantation Annihilation” resting between takes. Monk locks eyes with the extra, a younger man wearing Airpods; he throws Monk a peace sign, the universal symbol of solidarity. Monk nods at the man as the car takes off into the sunny day. What’s poignant about this is that there are several layers of history (the image of a slave contrasted with the Airpods and Monk and Cliffe) as well as reality (an extra versus two “real” people, all of whom are actors). What’s cool about this is that it blends time as well as reality to show that the lines are blurred onscreen just as they are off. It’s now up to the viewer to effect change.
- This is a satire. While the message about changing the Black narrative is serious, an overly serious tone would drown it out. Having it be somewhat comedic and satirical is kind of like having a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down.
Open to your thoughts…