“American Fiction”, which won the People’s Choice Award when it was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in last year and then garnered five Oscar nominations including the one for Best Picture in last month, is a little mild satire to enjoy. As a foreign audience outside US, I am not totally sure about whether I understand all the nuances and details in the film, but I was often amused by a number of acerbic moments in the film, and my only complaint is that it does not push its story and characters further for more laughs and insights.

Jeffrey Wright, an ever-dependable African American actor who finally received an overdue Oscar nomination for this film after many years of variously wonderful performances such as his memorable breakout turn in Julian Schnabel’s “Basquiat” (1996), plays Dr. Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a black writer/professor who has taught literature in LA. Although his novels have received enough acclaims and he has been known well in his field, they sadly do not sell that well in public, and he becomes all the more frustrated when his latest manuscript is rejected for not being “black enough”.

After one unpleasant incident in the middle his lecture, which is involved with that six-letter racist word I cannot possibly type here, Ellison is virtually forced to take a break, and then he goes to Boston for not only attending a literary seminar to be held there but also visiting his upper-class African American family. Although he has not been particularly close to his family, his gradually senile mother welcomes him nonetheless along with her longtime housekeeper, and so does his medical doctor sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross).

While reminded again of how distant he has been to his family especially after one unfortunate incident, Ellison also becomes quite frustrated as seeing how obscure he and his novels are at that literary seminar. As a matter of fact, many people at the seminar are more drawn to an African American female writer named Sintara Golden (Issa Rae, who brings a lot to her rather under-developed role) for her latest novel about African American ghetto life, and this pisses off Ellison a lot. In his opinion, African American writers definitely have the rights to write and publish any other things besides those “black trauma porns”, and, alas, many non-black readers are understandably more drawn to such ones like Golden’s novels, while Ellison’s books are not even regarded as a part of African American literature.

In the end, Ellison decides to throw a little naughty joke to many readers and publishers out there. Hiding behind a pseudonym, he casually writes “My Pafology”, a deliberately “black” novel which is not so different from Golden’s popular novels in terms of language and texture. Although he intends to write a very bad novel, he cannot help but driven by his writer’s instinct, and we accordingly get a humorous moment when he tries to imagine the dialogues for his two main characters broadly played by Keith David and Okieriete Onaodowan.

Without much expectation, Ellison hands his supposedly trashy novel to his agent, but, what do you know, it turns out to be a huge success beyond their imagination. A major publishing company instantly approaches to him and his agent with a considerable amount of cash, and Ellison cannot say no easily because he happens to need the money right now for moving his mother to a fairly nice facility for old people.

As Ellison struggles to handle this unexpected consequence which keeps going out of his control, the screenplay by director/writer/co-producer Cord Jefferson, which is based on Percival Everett’s book “Erasure”, doles out one sharply humorous moment to another. Once he makes a deal with that big publishing company, Ellison has to assume a certain African American stereotype for covering up himself more, and that certainly annoys and frustrates him a lot. Sure, there comes a point where he decides that enough is enough, but then the people of that big publishing company are so eager to publish his novel that they even willingly accept the new title of the novel deliberately demanded by him to our little amusement (Again, I cannot possibly type it here in this review).

In the meantime, the movie also pays considerable attention to what is going on in Ellison’s private life. His plastic surgeon brother Cliff (Sterling K. Brown), who got recently divorced after his ex-wife found out his homosexuality, causes another headache for Ellison as carelessly throwing himself more into hedonistic lifestyle, and that leads to more conflict between him and Ellison. In addition, Ellison comes to befriend a woman who lives right across from his family beach house, and we get a few tender moments as he opens up himself a bit more to her. Although this part feels relatively weak compared to those satiric moments in the movie, Wright ably provides the ground for his several fellow cast members, and Tracee Ellis Ross, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, and Sterling K. Brown, who receives a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for this film, have each own moment to shine.

Overall, “American Fiction” works as a witty and intelligent satire supported well by its competent direction and a number of solid performances including Wright’s stellar acting. It could be more acerbic and hilarious, and I do not think its finale works as well as intended, but it made me reflect more on my own experience with African American literature at least after I watched it at last night. It did its job anyway with interesting stuffs to be savored, and I may enjoy it more when I revisit someday.