American Fiction was a sleeper hit over the festive period, outperformed expectations at the box office, and landed a Best Picture Oscar nomination. Not bad! The comedy-drama, based on Erasure by Percival Everett, follows a middling literary fiction writer who is tired of the fact that black literature tends to fall into poverty porn and reinforce racist stereotypes (many believe that Push by Sapphire was partly responsible for inspiring Everett to write Erasure).
To prove this is the case, he writes an incredibly offensive and poorly constructed novel that uses a particularly ghettoized form of ebonics and plays into every negative assumption white culture has about African Americans, only to find that it takes the incredibly white, incredibly privileged literature establishment by storm, leading to all sorts of prestigious awards nominations and shoutouts from so-called liberal establishments.
The book, and now the film, points out some flaws in the creative industries which have only become worse since Everett wrote it way back in 2001, and is well worth watching for that reason alone. It helps that the movie also has some brilliant names in its cast list, including Issa Rae and Sterling K. Brown, alongside leading man Jeffery Wright, who has put in an inspired performance. If you are a person of color in the literary industry, a lot of the action will undoubtedly hit close to home.
If you’re a fan of Everett’s source material, or have heard about the movie and think it’s something that will appeal to you, then you might be wondering: is American Fiction streaming? And, if not, where can you watch it? Read on to find out more!
Is American Fiction streaming?
Currently, American Fiction is not on any streaming service, but it is available to buy or rent so you can watch it at home.
You can buy or rent American Fiction in ultra HD via Prime Video, Apple TV, and most other video-on-demand platforms.
