海角大神

鈥淎merican Fiction鈥� is a serious-minded satire about race relations that is often exasperatingly at odds with itself. A first feature written and directed by Cord Jefferson and adapted from Percival Everett鈥檚 2001 novel, 鈥淓rasure,鈥� it serves up an overload of potential bull鈥檚-eyes. Some darts hit, others miss.

Thelonious 鈥淢onk鈥� Ellison (a marvelous Jeffrey Wright) is a Black novelist and college English professor with a short fuse. We first see him attempting to introduce his class to a story by Flannery O鈥機onnor, the title of which bears the N-word. A white student angrily objects to the usage. Monk curtly responds, 鈥淲ith all due respect, I got over it. I鈥檓 pretty sure you will, too.鈥� As a result of this contretemps, the college places Monk, to his great annoyance, on a leave of absence.聽

Monk does not play the political correctness game. Neither, as we soon discover, does he play the race card. When he travels to Boston to speak at a literary conference, the sparse attendance at his talk is contrasted with the thronged presentation of a new novel by a well-spoken Black writer, Sintara Golden (an impressive Issa Rae). She doesn鈥檛 sound anything like the title of her bestselling book, 鈥淲e鈥檚 Lives in Da Ghetto.鈥�

Monk listens to the reading, attended by a rapturous, mostly white audience, in silent disbelief. His own novels, we have learned, don鈥檛 sell. His latest, a variation on Aeschylus鈥� 鈥淭he Persians,鈥� can鈥檛 even find a publisher. And yet here is a smart, well-educated woman who, in his view, has achieved success by pandering to her readership. The scene crystallizes the film鈥檚 central quandary: What, in our society, should a Black writer be?

Decamping to his dysfunctional family鈥檚 beach house in Martha鈥檚 Vineyard 鈥� after spending time with his sister (a sharp cameo by Tracee Ellis Ross) 鈥� Monk realizes his mother (Leslie Uggams) requires expensive medical assistance. To fund it, or at least vent his cynicism about Black writers and the publishing business, he writes a quickie novel. Titled 鈥淢y Pafology,鈥� it鈥檚 full of gangs and cops and violence. He uses the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh 鈥� and promptly gets a high six-figure offer.聽

Hoping to back out of a ruse that has already gone too far, he tells his publishers, all white, that they must change the title to 鈥淔---.鈥澛�

To his dismay, they unexpectedly agree. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very Black,鈥� they enthuse. Soon, Hollywood comes calling.

The deepening convolutions of this gambit play out amid a simultaneous 鈥淭his Is Us鈥�-style family dynamic on the Vineyard involving Monk鈥檚 gay, plastic surgeon brother (a lively Sterling K. Brown). There鈥檚 also a fraught romantic liaison between Monk and Coraline (a superb Erika Alexander), a beachside neighbor and public defender. She has actually read, and admired, his novels.

The targeting in this movie of the publishing world and Hollywood for cashing in on a spurious Black 鈥渁uthenticity鈥� strikes me as valid. But the film also sympathizes with the populist idea of giving audiences what they want, or think they want, even if they are being pandered to.聽

The film never allows for the fact that 鈥渟erious鈥� Black novelists 鈥� such as James McBride,聽Marlon James, Colson Whitehead, and聽Jesmyn Ward聽鈥� have indeed become bestselling writers in our culture. Monk鈥檚 only path to commercial success is to sell out. The movie also doesn鈥檛 account for any vitality in the Black entertainments he鈥檚 decrying. The satirical bite in 鈥淎merican Fiction,鈥� as amusing as it often is, is also somewhat toothless.

It was probably not intentional, but Monk鈥檚 despair comes across as sour grapes. Do we even know if his Aeschylus adaption was any good? Also, when has it ever been easy for talented novelists of any color or gender to get published?

In a way, the confusions and contradictions of 鈥淎merican Fiction,鈥� though they limit its effectiveness, are also unavoidably a part of what it鈥檚 all about. What stayed with me in the end was Monk鈥檚 lament: 鈥淲e鈥檙e more than this!鈥�

Peter Rainer is the Monitor鈥檚 film critic. 鈥淎merican Fiction鈥� is rated R聽for language throughout, some drug use, sexual references, and brief violence.聽