American Fictions

EPISODE 26: Awards, compliments, clichés, race, and why Oscar contender Cord Jefferson (still) gives a f*ck.

The first time I heard about American Fiction, I was in the lobby of the Bowery Hotel, here in New York, back in like June 2021. And Cord Jefferson was telling me and our friend Erik that the new movie he was writing and directing now had a title.

And that title was: Fuck.

Which was both a reference to an actual plot detail in Cord’s script — based on the novel Erasure, by Percival Everett — and, as Cord later discovered, a problem.

Because no such film, not even an Oscar nominee, was ever gonna make the first page of search results when someone Googled the words “Fuck movie.”

So now Cord’s film is called American Fiction.

And if you have not yet heard about American Fiction, which is a comedy — a satire — you will. Very, very soon:

In the weeks since I saw his movie at an early screening, in New York, Cord has become the stock that pretty much everyone in Hollywood wishes they bought.

He was once a journalist, a blogger at Gawker. And then he wrote — and won various trophies — for Watchmen, Succession, Station Eleven, The Good Place, Master of None.

And now American Fiction has won the Audience Award at super prestigious film festivals. And the movie has become a legitimate betting favorite (!) for a Best Picture nomination at the actual Oscars.

All of which speaks to the real shit — the social constructs, and their real-life consequences — that I wanted to find out about with Cord.

DKN/YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Please watch/listen to this one, till the end.

I’m going to be thinking about it for a while.

Preciously,

Pablo