American Fiction

Folks comparing American Fiction to Bamboozled must not have actually seen Spike Lee’s 2000 media satire.

Sure, the two films share some social critique DNA via Producers-like shuck-and-jive routines that backfire when White America embraces the would-be, should-be creative bombs within the films. But Cord Jefferson’s adaptation of Percival Everett’s novel Erasure has far cuddlier goals than Lee’s acid-in-the-wound approach.

Though the tale of struggling literary author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey “Mr. Consistent” Wright) pseudonymously penning a parody novel, rife with urban clichés, that naturally becomes a best-seller yields big, intelligent laughs as it skewers white liberal gullibility, it’s in Monk’s personal life where American Fiction hits its stride.

Relationships with his sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish), brother Cliff (Sterling K. Brown), Alzheimer-battling mother Agnes (Leslie Uggams, Roots), and their beloved housekeeper Lorraine (Myra Lucretia Taylor, Unsane) are genuine, well-written bonds and serve as foils to the stereotypes that the public predictably lauds from his lampooning novel.

In addition to a lovely, unexpected romance with his mother’s neighbor Coraline (Erika Alexander, Get Out), these heartfelt interactions among the talented ensemble stress that Black families experience all the joy and pain of their white counterparts, and prove that telling these true-to-life stories is sufficiently compelling — no exaggerated racial trauma necessary.

Grade: B-plus. Rated R. Starts Jan. 18 at Grail Moviehouse

(Photo: Claire Folger/MGM)