Overview: American Fiction is Cord Jefferson’s hilarious directorial debut, which confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.

Blu-ray Verdict: Not painted on the large cinematic canvases of its likely Best Picture competitors, like Oppenheimer, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon or Poor Things, director-co-writer Cord Jefferson’s wise comedy scores its bulls-eyes on a life-size target, somewhere between the heart and the brain. The writing is brilliantly original, coming at well-worn black racial themes with eyes so fresh, you feel like you’re seeing the subject for the first time.

Jeffrey Wright carries the film, showing a side of himself often missing from past powerhouse dramatic performances. He’s lovable, despite the fact that his character doesn’t know how to be. His Thelonius Ellison - you can call him Monk - is a prickly, Harvard-educated California university literature professor, author of several novels that no one, other than adoring academic critics, read.

Earning its audacious title, American Fiction’s plot is as well crafted as its metaphors. Before it’s finished, black stereotypes and tone-deaf white efforts to embrace them have fallen under its satirical scalpel. So have the worlds of academia, publishing and Hollywood moviemaking. Its humor is smart and sly. It’s no coincidence that Monk shares his last name with author Ralph Ellison, whose Invisible Man helped usher in the black American literary renaissance of the ’50s and ’60s.

While its satire is spot on, at its heart the movie is really about family. Turns out Monk isn’t the only doctor in his family. His sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross) and brother Cliff (Sterling K. Brown) are physicians. The Ellison’s are upscale enough to have a beach house as well as their big family home where matriarch Agnes (Leslie Uggams) is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. All that brain power doesn’t make them any less dysfunctional than other families. They just have wittier things to say about it.

After Monk is drawn back to his family roots in Boston, his writing career takes an unexpected turn. What starts as a prank protest of authentic portrayals of black people in mainstream culture - notably by overnight-sensation black novelist Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) - inadvertently transforms Monk into a caricature himself. Which, to his dismay, is the path to the literary glory he has spent his life chasing.

The dumber I behave, the richer I get, he complains to his agent (John Ortiz). Now, do not worry as this isn’t a spoiler, because it is in the trailer, so settle down! Considering how intelligent the script is, it’s ironic that a single word plays a crucial, and hilarious, role summing things up. You know the word - the one that begins with F!<> Watching American Fiction is richly rewarding, punctuated by laugh-out-loud moments steeped in real affection for its gently flawed characters. It has already picked up wins at early film festivals; expect plenty more nominations all around its cast and creators as awards season cranks into high gear.

Its rich vein of empathy and compassion make for magnificent fiction. It truly is a work of literature as much as genius filmmaking. Watching it, I found myself uttering out loud that specific word I mentioned above! Sometimes without warning! So, for me, it wasn’t a curse at all, but a spontaneous expression of admiration, awe and pure joy. [R.C.]