Politicians continue to downplay racism in American culture, despite the fact that it is present and has affected for two centuries, and continues to affect our culture in all sorts of ways, obvious and not so obvious.  This movie explores the not so obvious ways in which white people view black people, as seen by some of those black people — and it’s an eye-opening look.  Much of the movie is satirical, and over-the-top, but much of it isn’t, and all of it is thought-provoking.

Cord Jefferson’s movie follows writer Thelonious Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), known as “Monk” because of his unusual first name.  He writes well and is a respected literary voice, but he is not popular and his books don’t make money.  He is outraged by the success of a new black writer, Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), whose characters barely speak recognizable English and seem to embody every negative trope about “ghetto” blacks.  In response, he pens a similarly themed satirical book called “My Pafology,” just to get things off his chest.  To his amaze, it attracts attention and, when ultimately published under a shorter and much more vulgar title, becomes an instant bestseller.  If that weren’t enough for Monk, his immediate family goes into crisis at about the same time, and he meets somebody special, causing him to reevaluate his life and his actions, including keeping his newfound success a deep, dark secret.

There’s a lot going on here, and it makes a dandy drama.  When the story focuses on Monk’s personal situation — his tense job as an English professor, his relationships with sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross) and brother Cliff (Sterling K. Brown), the descent into dementia of his mother Agnes (Leslie Uggams), the need for money as his mother demands full time care, the meeting of attractive neighbor Coraline (Erika Alexander) and that burgeoning relationship — the film is superb.  These characters are beautifully realized and we care about them deeply and immediately.  Contrast comes from the satirical entrance of “My Pafology,” a story about which we get few details, but one which is pap compared to Monk’s other literary work, which reference Aeschylus and Euripides.  Yet this story, when shopped by Monk’s editor (John Ortiz) attracts major attention and even vies for a literary merit award through a committee upon which Monk is himself a judge.  And the more that Monk attempts to make the work unsalable the more money it attracts.

The satirical edge focuses on how white people — supposedly smart, well-educated, literary-minded white people — find meaning and truth in a story for which Monk has included every negative, clichéd, angry, criminal, poverty-stricken element about black characters he could imagine.  Yet the audience — all except for Sintara Golden, who sees the work for what it is — embraces it wholeheartedly.  Monk can’t understand it.  He also doesn’t see how Sintara’s book, similar in theme and by acclamation, is so different, even though he hasn’t read it.  It is Sintara who comes across as the author (and person) Monk should be, if he could just get past his own resentments and biases.  There are signs he will benefit from the experience, but nothing is certain because the story ends very ambiguously.

What really works is Monk’s personal and familial situation.  Even if one rejects his newest story as hogwash, unworthy of the attention and discussion it engenders, this story about a man trying to reconnect with his siblings and his declining mother is absolutely worthwhile.  His romance with Coraline is adult and non-exploitive in a marvelous manner, and it is this, more than anything else, that we sense could truly save him, and provide him with a great second act of his life.  If only he can get past himself.  ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2.  13 February 2024.