MGM and Orion Pictures have released a second trailer for its publishing industry satire American Fiction starring Jeffrey Wright. It is based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett.
In the movie, Wright plays Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a college professor and frustrated novelist who is fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that he sees as relying on every single tired, offensive, and negative stereotype and trope, from gangsta rap to “noble in the hood” movies.
In a fit of anger and spite, he adopts and pseudonym and drafts the outline of a novel that embodies every single black cliche he can imagine. His agent submits it to a major publisher. He is immediately offered the biggest advance Monk’s ever seen. The novel pours off printers and into bookshops as Hollywood comes courting for the movie rights.
Now, Monk must wrestle with the reality of the situation and the monster of his own making.
Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Adam Brody, Keith David, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, Erika Alexander, Patrick Fischler, John Ales, and Leslie Uggams round out the cast. American Fiction is written and directed by Cord Jefferson. The movie won the People’s Choice Award at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, sits at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, and is being widely tipped as a major awards contender this coming season.
The movie has been reviewed extremely strongly. Collider referred to it as “an American Masterpiece” while the New York Times called it “cagey and cerebral”, with the Guardian calling it “hilarious and withering satire”.
American Fiction has already hit select cinemas last Friday and gets a wider theatrical release this Friday – December 22nd.
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