‘American Fiction’: Daring, Provocative, and Audacious

Misconceptions about race are at the center of this blisteringly accurate satire.

(L–R) Cliff (Sterling K. Brown), Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), and Coraline (Erika Alexander), in “American Fiction.” Amazon, MGM Studios

R | 1h 57m | Drama, Comedy, Satire, | Dec. 22, 2023

At one point early on in “American Fiction,” writer Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) enters a store to see if his books are in stock. He’s a black man, and when he questions an oblivious white clerk as to why his works are in the “African American” section, the clerk states matter-of-factly that it’s because Monk is black man, even though none of the books deal with what is considered these days to be “black issues.”