Sharp and subversively funny satire packs a potent narrative

(118 minutes, Prime Video)

3 stars

There can't be too many Oscar-nominated films that actively acknowledge their awards-bait credentials.

But that's just what we get in the funny and inventive satire American Fiction.

The film, which has garnered nominations for best picture, actor (Jeffrey Wright), supporting actor (Sterling K Brown) and adapted screenplay (writer-director Cord Jefferson adapted it from the novel Erasure by Percival Everett) ahead of this years Academy Awards, follows novelist and college professor Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, who is frustrated with the unending cycle of media portraying black people in poverty, both in film and literature, and celebrating those works above all other African-American stories.

When his frustration at being unable to sell his (likely pretentious) latest novel to a publisher reaches boiling point, Monk starts writing the most ridiculous, stereotypical, over-the-top piece of "black" fiction he can think up, and forces his agent to send it out to publishers under the name of "Stagg R Leigh" so they can see just how outrageous this type of content is.

But, to his lucrative surprise and dismay, publishers love it and the book becomes a huge success.

This leads to the gem of a line, "the dumber I behave, the richer I get".

Meanwhile, as he's going through this sort of identity crisis and dealing with the internal fall-out of being a massive hypocrite, Monk has got quite a bit going on in his personal life. His mother (an understated and devastating performance by Leslie Uggams, Deadpool) is in ill health and needs to be moved to a care facility, which will put financial pressure on her three children, Monk, daughter Lisa (a delightful Tracee Ellis Ross) and son Clifford (Brown).

Monk has also started a new relationship with their neighbour Coraline (an impressive Erika Alexander), who appreciates his writing and gets along well with his family.

Another stress on Monk's sense of self is his work on the judging panel for a prestigious literary award. Invited as the award organisers are trying to be more diverse - and tell him so directly - Monk finds himself judging the writing of others alongside Sintara Golden (Issa Rae, in reliably good form), an author who has produced the kind of poverty-porn novel he is regaling against.

American Fiction raises a lot of really interesting questions about what makes a piece of art complex and prestigious, and how much responsibility the creator bears in their audience's reaction to that art. If white audiences develop a view of black people based on a certain type of novel, does the author shoulder that responsibility? Is it wrong to feed into a popular genre if it doesn't offer anything new or insightful?

The film is filled with white people waxing lyrical about how "raw" and "real" Monk's fake book is, clearly demonstrating how they feel good about themselves for taking in and championing more diverse content - all things that sicken Monk.

On the whole the film is bright, sunny and upbeat. It's not sarcastic or accusatory, it's just a clever bit of fun with some decent family drama underneath. Monk's approach to his "black" book feels a lot like the sketch videos from content creator Evan Williams, who uses Madlibs to create film plots and ends each video by saying it's going to make so much money.

While American Fiction has little to no chance of actually winning any of the Oscars it's nominated for, it's still definitely worth watching.