UB Extended Preview: ‘American Fiction’ | In Theaters Now

“American Fiction” is available in all theaters today.

This is a must-see film!

Tony and Emmy Award-winner Jeffrey Wright stars in “American Fiction,” Cord Jefferson’s feature debut from an adaptation of Percival Everett’s “Erasure” – a bold comedy about the commodification of marginalized voices and a portrait of an artist forced to reexamine his integrity.

A fearless, funny, and provocative tale, “American Fiction” shines a thoughtful and thought provoking light on the concept and construct of race, identity, and family that aims to unify.

Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Wright) is a respected author and professor of English literature. But his impatience with his students’ cultural sensitivities threatens his academic standing, while his latest novel fails to attract publishers who claim Monk’s writing “isn’t Black enough.”

He travels to his hometown of Boston to participate in a literary festival where all eyes are on the first time author of a bestseller titled “We’s Lives In Da Ghetto,” a book Monk dismisses as pandering to readers seeking stereotypical stories of Black misery.

Meanwhile, Monk’s family experiences tragedy and his ailing mother requires a level of care neither he nor his complicated and self proclaimed black sheep of a brother (Sterling K. Brown) can afford. One night, in a fit of spite, Monk concocts a pseudonymous novel, “My Pafology,” embodying every Black cliché he can imagine.

His agent submits it to a major publisher who immediately offers the biggest advance Monk’s ever seen. As the novel is rushed to the printers and Hollywood comes courting, Monk must reckon with an identity of his own making.

“I think the film, if I can kind of distill it down, is about freedom. It’s about defining oneself on one’s own terms to the extent that any of us are able to do that,” stated Jeffrey Wright.

Author and activist James Baldwin once said, “If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” This quote then begs the question: What does it mean to be seen as Black? Who gets to define, evaluate, and authenticate Blackness?

Is society, industry, and media ready to breathe in the depth and breadth of Black identity beyond recycled perceptions and preconceived notions? Is it time to turn up the volume on Blackness so Black experiences can break through – in total living color?

Starring Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David with Issa Rae and Sterling K. Brown. Also starring Myra Lucretia Taylor, Ray Anthony Thomas, Okieriete Onaodowan, Miriam Shor, Michael Cyril Creighton, Patrick Fischler, Neal Lerner, J.C. Mackenzie, Jenn Harris, and Bates Wilder.

Orion Pictures and MRC present, a T-Street Production, in association with Almost Infinite, and 3 Arts Entertainment, “American Fiction,” a film by Cord Jefferson.

Check Out The UB Extended Preview!