‘American Fiction’ trailer: Jeffrey Wright stars in Cord Jefferson’s acclaimed directorial debut [Watch]
Is it bad to cater to people’s tastes? That’s one question Emmy Award winner Cord Jefferson (“Watchmen”) will attempt to answer with his feature directorial debut “American Fiction.” The comedy from Amazon MGM Studios and Orion debuted at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where it won rave reviews from critics and the prestigious fest’s audience award – a strong bellwether for future Oscar success.
On Monday, Amazon released the upcoming film’s first trailer, a lively showcase for star Jeffrey Wright as well as Jefferson’s button-pushing premise.
Based on the book “Erasure” by Percival Everett, “American Fiction” “confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes,” according to the studio’s press release. In the film, Wright stars as an author named Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, “a frustrated novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from ‘Black’ entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write an outlandish ‘Black’ book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.”
In addition to Wright, the film stars Sterling K. Brown, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, Leslie Uggams, John Ortiz, and Erika Alexander.
”I wanted it to be satire without becoming farce. That was important to me,” Jefferson told Deadline in an interview published after the film’s acclaimed Toronto premiere. “I think that some satire becomes farcical, and I think that’s totally fine. I think there’s some great farcical films, but I didn’t want to do that with this. I wanted it to feel satirical but also grounded. I think the blending of the family stuff in there grounds it. It grounds the film before it becomes just pure satirical farce.”
Following its audience award win at TIFF, “American Fiction” flew up the predictions charts for Best Picture. The film currently sits in 10th place in the combined Gold Derby odds for the top honor. That jump makes sense: Eleven straight winners of the TIFF audience award have gone on to receive a corresponding Oscar nomination for Best Picture, with “Nomadland,” “Green Book,” and “12 Years a Slave” ultimately winning the top prize during that same stretch. That history bodes well for “American Fiction,” which could also provide Wright with his first-ever Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
“American Fiction” will next be seen at regional festivals throughout the fall. It arrives in theaters on December 15. Watch the trailer here.
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