American Fiction Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

American Fiction Blu-ray Movie Review

Just in time for Juneteenth!

Reviewed by Randy Miller III June 20, 2024

Half searing satire and half character-fueled melodrama, director Cord Jefferson's American Fiction is one of the most confident film debuts I've seen in recent memory. Featuring a fantastic cast led by Jeffrey Wright and a solid screenplay (also penned by Jefferson) that's based on a 2001 novel by Percival Everett, American Fiction's sly self-awareness and attempts at meta-humor work in its favor, with only a bit of unevenness creeping in once both tonal halves finally converge. You probably won't care, of course, because almost everything else about it fires on all cylinders.

Our story sticks close to Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Wright), who's present in almost every scene of American Fiction and anchors its narrative tightly. An upper-class author and college professor based in Los Angeles, Monk's habitually aggressive tone with students over racial book content gets him into hot water with administrators and he's forced to take an unpaid temporary leave. Monk reluctantly agrees to spend time in Boston, home to both an upcoming literary convention and his family of doctors including divorced sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross), recently uncloseted brother Cliff (Sterling K. Brown), and ailing mom Agnes (Leslie Uggams), who's in in the early stages of Alzheimer's.

Their lightly amicable but increasingly turbulent relationship with one other guides our story along, with unfulfilled ambition and personal regret doing at least some of the driving. Other perspectives are also brought in, such as kindly long-time housekeeper Lorraine (Myra Lucretia Taylor) and old family friend Maynard (Raymond Anthony Thomas), not to mention recently separated neighbor Coraline (Erika Alexander), who eventually takes a liking to Monk.

The other half of American Fiction concerns Monk's attempts to make his voice known in the literary world. Attendance at that convention for the panel he's on proves to be a lot smaller than expected, as most of the crowd has flocked to hot young writer Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) and her new novel "We's Lives in da Ghetto", which has earned her a huge following from liberal critics and audiences for its "uncompromising rawness". Monk rightly finds this brand of subject matter insulting and has never pandered to audiences that gobble up stereotypes from black authors. On a whim and presumably with nothing better to do, though, Monk writes a satirical story under the pen name "Stagg R. Leigh" and, along with his agent Arthur (John Ortiz), is shocked to receive lucrative offers for publishing rights. He doesn't want to sell out, of course... but once Mom's medical bills pile up, Monk might have no choice but to bite the bullet.

American Fiction has a bit of trouble keeping both balls in the air, excelling with character-driven moments while occasionally losing its grip on the satirical end of things. It's not as ambitious as Spike Lee's Bamboozled nor as refined as Get Out, two films that it obviously owes at least something of a debt to, and thus the believability factor of its over-the-top novel doesn't land with the same impact. Luckily the novel's construction, and of course Monk's attempts to bring its fictional author to life, inject a bit more life into this half of its narrative, even if its more grounded characters really do most of the heavy lifting here. In fact, there's a stretch during the third act where Monk's book moves far into the background, and audiences may wonder if this part of the film even needed to be focused on so strongly.

These elements may sound like sticking points that hinder enjoyment of American Fiction, and to a certain extent they do hold it back slightly from true greatness. But as mentioned earlier, there's a lot to like here, from the outstanding performances of its lead and supporting performers to a handful of well-placed satirical jabs and several clever visual and editing touches, such as a heated on-screen exchange between two of Monk's characters while he stabs away at the typewriter (above). American Fiction really does have a good head on its shoulders and something to say, which are more than enough to consider it a successful and fairly unique effort. A critical darling but only a modest box office success (fitting, given its narrative), this Amazon MGM Studios production has thankfully earned a Blu-ray release through Warner Bros., although anyone hoping for bonus features might walk away disappointed.

For an even warmer take on American Fiction, please see Brian Orndof's glowing theatrical review.

American Fiction Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

It's mostly great news for American Fiction in this lead-off technical department, as its largely sturdy 1080p transfer probably didn't need both layers of this 50GB disc but got them anyway. This is a great-looking film with tight levels of fine detail; it's often nicely staged and composed with great attention to detail and color, which makes the majority of its scenes stand out from a visual perspective. Black levels and shadow detail are good in most respects (a bit more on that later) and saturation levels are as intense as they need to be in key moments without falling victim to color bleed. Depth is impressive at times, and the well-lit interior scenes and familiar architecture in and around suburban Boston give it lots of first-glance appeal. Compression and disc encoding also look good for the most part, with large portions of American Fiction running at a bit rate that holds steady in the mid to high 30Mbps range. There are only two genuine sticking points here: one is a bit of errant ghosting around the 10:10 mark, as well as a handful of scenes (mostly shot outdoors) with almost pitch-black backgrounds where crush and a few related artifacts can easily be picked out. Even though it may not have solved either of these problems, it's a shame we couldn't have gotten a full-strength 4K UHD edition of American Fiction; the odds are good that it probably would have looked quite impressive.

American Fiction Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Obviously the largely melodramatic and dialogue-driven American Fiction doesn't need an overly active sound stage to tell its story, so for the most part this DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix is a "gets the job done" effort. The majority of its scenes only feature two or three characters on screen at a time and take place in fairly quiet locales, meaning there isn't ample opportunity for surround activity and only modest channel separation. Other moments widen things when needed, such as during Sintara Golden's crowded convention appearance and a fictional TV show segment, as well as a certain awards show near the end that we return to multiple times. Elsewhere, Laura Karpman's jazz-infused original score makes its presence known with a solid dynamic range and rarely fights for attention, bringing this up to the level of an overall somewhat reserved but enjoyable mix that likely replicates theatrical showings accurately.

Optional subtitles, including English (SDH), are offered during the main feature.

American Fiction Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover artwork that obviously favors one side of its narrative over the other; a matching slipcover and Digital Copy code are also included. Sadly, there are absolutely no bonus features on board here... not even a theatrical trailer, which you can see here. Pretty disappointing.

American Fiction Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cord Jefferson's American Fiction was marketed as an all-out comedy, and to be fair the film's solid stabs at well-placed satire mostly work in its favor... but the more dramatic family side of things is the film's real hidden strength, enough to the point where both tonal halves feel separated to a fault. Luckily, there's more than enough in its favor to consider American Fiction a solid effort from its first-time director, including a career-best performance from Jeffrey Wright and a great supporting cast. Warner Bros.' Blu-ray is something of a missed opportunity since it's completely devoid of extras and there's no 4K options, but I'm still really glad we got this one on disc. Firmly Recommended.