I had a hard time getting past the flawed premise here: A black writer can’t sell his great American novel so he slaps together a sensational story that satirizes the black urban condition. So far, so good. But, when he winds up on a book review panel and judges his own book for an award, the movie lost me. The ethical implications of his actions were largely ignored or simply lost. The sub-plots, including his brother’s drug use and a budding romance, were largely unresolved. Still, Jeffrey Wright’s performance was worth watching. The move overall is worth a watch, but definitely not ‘best picture’ material in my opinion. Wikipedia says: American Fiction is a 2023 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Cord Jefferson, in his feature directorial debut. Based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett, it follows a frustrated novelist-professor who writes an outlandish satire of stereotypical “black” books, only for it to be mistaken by the liberal elite for serious literature and published to both high sales and critical praise. It stars Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, and Keith David.