When he spoke to the audience after the premiere of his film “American Fiction” at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday night, director Cord Jefferson talked about how films about Black people always seem to focus on tragedy and trauma, to the exclusion of every other part of the Black experience. “Jewish people, you get ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Annie Hall,’” he said to laughter. “But a prestige Black film has always got to be civil rights or slavery or drug dealers.”
You can’t really say that “American Fiction” strikes back by being part “Schindler’s List” and part “Annie Hall,” but it does pull off the remarkable feat of being a lovely, charming comedy that makes damn serious points about representation and racial politics.