American Fiction | 2023 | R | – 3.5.9

Why is “American Fiction” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language throughout, some drug use, sexual references and brief violence.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of implied sex scenes, several kissing scenes between men and women and men and men, a few flirting scenes, discussions of infidelity and divorce, a woman dying from a cardiac arrest, a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, a couple of imagined shooting deaths, many discussions of race and stereotypes, many arguments, and nearly 50 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A novelist (Jeffrey Wright) wrestling with his writing career and against big publishers that expect a certain kind of prose from him, experiments with a story that becomes wildly successful and proves his suspicions about stereotypes in fiction. Also with Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Raymond Anthony Thomas, Okieriete Onaodowan, Miriam Shor, Michael Cyril Creighton, Patrick Fischler, Neal Lerner, J.C. MacKenzie and Jenn Harris. Directed by Cord Jefferson. [Running Time: 1:57]

American Fiction SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A man dresses while seated on the foot of a bed as a woman wearing a robe enters the room (sex is implied); they kiss and he leaves. A man enters a room, snorts cocaine off a kitchen counter and kisses another man standing nearby; the first man makes a suggestive remark as he follows the other man out of the room (sex is implied).
► A man and a woman snuggle and kiss on a sofa while they talk and she has her legs across his lap (we see part of her bare thigh). A man and a woman kiss in a few scenes. A man and a woman kiss at the altar after their wedding. Men and women dance together with some hip-thrusting gestures.
► A man tells another man on a phone call, “I’ve taken a lover,” and the second man is alarmed. A man and a woman drink wine in her home and another man enters the room; the first man seems alarmed and the woman later tells him the man is her ex. A woman asks a man to go out for a drink and he accepts. A man says that he lost everything when his wife found him in bed with a man. A woman talks about finding love letters from her father’s affairs; she says, “I saw him kissing a white woman in the park.” A man and a woman joke about being “under the heaving thrusts of a sweaty (fill in the blank with a celebrity’s name”). A man and his mother dance together and she says, “I knew you were not queer.” A man is sad because his father “…died not knowing I’m gay.” A woman tells a joke that refers to Roe v. Wade.
► A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage. A man sits in a bathtub and we see his bare shoulders and chest. A man wears swim trunks and we see his bare chest and abdomen. Two men wearing swimsuits (one is a bikini style) that reveal bare chests, abdomens and legs. A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage.

American Fiction VIOLENCE/GORE 5

 – An imagined sequence shows a man on a stage being shot by several armed police officers and he is thrown, with blood splattering and spraying. In an imagined sequence, a man holds a gun on another man as the second man tells the gunman that he is his father; they argue and the gunman shoots the other man (we see blood on his abdomen).
► A woman moans and holds her chest in a restaurant; a man calls for help and we see the woman being attended to by medical staff in a hospital and understand that she later died. People mourn while standing on a beach and a man sprinkles the ashes of his sister into the ocean as another man complains about human remains being put into the ocean.
► A woman says that she heard that an “old man blew his brains out” in a neighboring house. A man mimics shooting himself in the head, and then apologizes to a man whose father shot himself in the head.
► People panic and search for a woman when she wanders from her house at night; a man finds her walking on the beach and she says that she is trying to get her daughter out of the water and that she doesn’t swim very well (her adult son takes her inside). A professor has a racially derogatory term written on a board in a classroom and a student protests it being there during their discussion and leaves the room. Several people argue about a professor’s methods and he’s placed on leave. A man yells at another man as he leaves a meeting. A woman reads an excerpt from her novel using a specific vernacular. A woman tells a joke that refers to Roe v. Wade. A man yells for his mother, alarming a neighbor. A man describes himself as “The ape that all those stupid girls were afraid of.” A man describes having eyes that don’t care what happens tomorrow. A man says that publishers publish what people think they want but they just want to feel absolved. A woman is told, “I’m happy you’re not white,” and she replies, “Me too.” A man changes his manner of speaking and the way he walks to fit the stereotype of an African-American fugitive. A person describes a storyline being about slave ghosts killing everyone on a plantation and that a big star is going to be decapitated with a “fro pick.” A man remarks about someone being a “defund the police nut.” A man remarks that a book is written in “the language of the gutter.” A book’s title is “White Negroes.” A man refers to a genre of fiction as “Black trauma porn.” A man and a woman argue about taking care of their aging mother. A woman tells her adult son that he looks fat and that he overeats when he is depressed. A man says that his kids hate him. A man complains that there is only one gay bar where he lives. A doctor tells a man that his mother is suffering from early Alzheimer’s disease. A man accuses another man of having a superiority complex. A doctor tells a man that they had to sedate a woman because she tried to strike a nurse.
► A man urinates in a restroom and we hear the trickle and flush. A man blows out his nose holding one nostril and flips his hand as if something is stuck to it (we do not see mucus). Water drips from a ceiling and a man breaks a bathroom door open to find a woman seated next to an overflowing tub.

American Fiction LANGUAGE 9

 – About 47 F-words and its derivatives (4 written in graffiti on billboards), 4 sexual references, 31 scatological terms, 7 anatomical terms, 15 mild obscenities, 8 derogatory terms for African-American people, name-calling (old alcoholic, dirty doggy, detective dictionary, beard, menace, condescending, idiotic, punk, nerds, child, dude, soulless, slop, enigma, three-legged dog, sad, funny, pathetic, nuts, dumb, clown, crock, ridiculous, absurd, pandering, simplistic, meaningless, garbage, phony, boujee, trash, stupider, family melodrama), exclamations (oh wow, oh boy, shut-up, bingo), 4 religious profanities (GD), 14 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, oh God, Jesus Christ, oh Christ, dear God, God bless you, Christ, Christ on a crutch, Holy [scatological term deleted], I swear to [F-word deleted] God). | profanity glossary |

American Fiction SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man snorts cocaine and we see bottles of liquor on a counter, a man talks about dosing people to help them sleep and we learn that he has given them Oxycodone (he is a doctor), and a man talks about “synthetic smack.” A man drinks in a bar, a man drinks a whiskey, people drink wine, two men drink glasses of whiskey, a man drinks from a bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag, a man and a woman drink wine in several scenes, a woman asks a man to go out for a drink, and a man drinks from a mini liquor bottle early in the morning while his brother reprimands him. A woman smokes a cigarette in her car and says that she started after her divorce, and a woman smokes a cigarette in a few scenes.

American Fiction DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – The African-American experience, diversity, stereotypes, racism, infidelity, the publishing business, ambiguity, aging, resentment, truth, prison abolition movement, estranged families, boredom, rage, fear.

American Fiction MESSAGE

 – People are more than their worst deed.