150 Word Review: 'American Fiction' (2023)

Wright on

Photo: Orion Pictures

Writer and director Cord Jefferson's debut is a comedy-drama that nails both the comedy and the drama. His American Fiction is a scathing satire of racial politics amongst the elites and a surprisingly tender portrait of middle-aged children.

Jeffery Wright is at the peak of his powers as a distinguished man of letters whose thoughtful books don't sell. He refuses to write about race, but in a moment of creative frustration and financial need, he pens an offensive, wannabe bestseller filled with racial stereotypes as a kind of literary prank that becomes an actual runaway bestseller.

Meanwhile, a family tragedy pulls him back home, where he has to care for his ailing mother and struggling sibling. Wright is a national treasure, a growling, vulnerable character actor who should play the romantic lead more often. Jefferson's movie is sweet and sour, refreshingly honest, and the joke's on hilariously clueless, overeducated liberals.

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Best Of The Best: Jeffery Wright as Belize In HBO’s ‘Angels In America’ (2003)

Photo: HBO

Jeffery Wright is one of Hollywood’s most versatile actors. He’s created vivid and complex characters on stage and screen for almost three decades. But his award-winning turn as defiant former drag queen and nurse Belize in the mini-series adaptation of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play Angels in America is still one of his best performances. In this photo, Belize reluctantly cares for the poisonous homophobe Roy Cohn, a closeted right-wing hatchet man dying of AIDS, played by Al Pacino. Wright's Belize burns with fury and compassion.

Have you watched it recently? Or ever? Because you should. It’s currently streaming on Max.