A new American Fiction trailer is out from Orion and Amazon MGM Studios, previewing the upcoming Jeffrey Wright-led comedy film.
The film, which had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, follows Wright’s Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison, a respected author who creates a pseudonymous novel that embodies every Black cliché, and is shocked to find it becomes a success.
The film won the People’s Choice Award at TIFF, and will release in theaters on December 22, 2023.
Check out the new American Fiction trailer below (watch other clips and trailers):
Who is in American Fiction?
Described as a “wickedly smart satire,” American Fiction is written and directed by Cord Jefferson based on Percival Everett’s Erasure novel. Joining Wright are Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David, with Issa Rae and Sterling K. Brown. Executive producers are Rian Johnson, Ram Bergman, Percival Everett, and Michael Bowes, with Jefferson, Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, and Jermaine Johnson producing.
“Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison is a respected author and professor of English literature. But his impatience with his students’ cultural sensitivities is threatening his academic standing, while his latest novel is failing to attract publishers; they claim Monk’s writing ‘isn’t Black enough,’” reads the synopsis (via TIFF). “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 trainwreck of a brother can afford.
“One night, in a fit of spite, Monk concocts a pseudonymous novel 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 a monster of his own making.”