American Fiction

2023
R
1h 57m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

101K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer2:22

Dark Comedy High-Concept Comedy Satire Comedy Drama

A novelist who's fed up with the establishment profiting from Black entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of the hypocrisy and madness he claims to di... Read allA novelist who's fed up with the establishment profiting from Black entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of the hypocrisy and madness he claims to disdain.A novelist who's fed up with the establishment profiting from Black entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of the hypocrisy and madness he claims to disdain.

Director
- Cord Jefferson
Writers
- Cord Jefferson
- Percival Everett
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

101K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

1,090

293

Director
- Cord Jefferson
Writers
- Cord Jefferson
- Percival Everett
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 1 Oscar
- 63 wins & 167 nominations total

Trivia
In a 2023 interview with Esquire, Cord Jefferson explained his approach to a key scene in the film and how the actors elevated it in unexpected ways: "We've all seen that scene of the writer pounding the keyboard frantically, then taking a big sip of coffee and getting back to it. That's how you depict somebody intensely writing. But I thought, 'We can't have that. It's tropey and silly, and it doesn't get the audience's minds going.' So why not have these characters manifest in front of him? When I wrote that scene, I wrote the language to be very silly. It had to be ridiculous so that everybody could see how stupid this book is and what a sham it is. Then we got Keith David and Okieriete Onaodowan, who are both such tremendous actors. All of the sudden, it wasn't silly anymore. They made it seem like the book might be good. I love what the scene became in their hands: suddenly you're questioning whether or not the book is good, which is evidence that something as ridiculous as this book could become a hit."

Goofs
At the movie's beginning, Monk walks out of a building while being on the phone and holding a coffee cup with a vertical print of Dunkin Donuts, and with a lid on it. Seconds later, when he gets into a car, the logo on the cup is horizontally printed and it has no lid, while he is still holding the phone to his head with the other hand.

Quotes
Sintara Golden: Potential is what people see when they think what's in front of them isn't good enough.

Connections
Featured in 2024 EE BAFTA Film Awards (2024)

Soundtracks
Without You
Written by Aubrey Johnson
Performed by Ace Spectrum
Published by Ace Spec Music
Courtesy of Mojo Music and Media

User reviews340

Review

Featured review

8/10

One of the Best Premises of the Year

"American Fiction" has a great premise, one of the best in any movie this year. And I overall liked it and think it was well made, so I'm rounding my score up to reflect that. But it somehow didn't completely land for me, in a way that I find hard to explain.

I think it was the domestic drama part of the film that didn't completely work for me. The movie spends a lot of time on all the ways that Jeffrey Wright feels overwhelmed by his life's responsibilities, and it sags in some of these parts, and makes the movie feel a little bit like a slog. And I don't know that I ever completely believed the character played by Sterling K. Brown, who never seemed convincing as a gay man. But I did like what the film had to say about the burden placed on black people to constantly be representing black people everywhere that white people never have to deal with. And I also liked the choose your own adventure ending that takes the film into meta territory in its final scenes.

So, solid double for me, but not a home run.

Grade: A-