Best Supporting Actor 2023: Sterling K. Brown in American Fiction

Sterling K. Brown received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Clifford "Cliff" Ellison in American Fiction. 

The reliable Brown, plays the role of Cliff the brother of Jeffrey Wright's Thelonius "Monk" Ellison, who we are first introduced after the surprise death of their sister and we essentially cut into Brown at the ceremony of getting rid of her ashes, where Brown basically has to sum of the nature of his performance in short succession in a single scene. We first see the grief well portrayed by Brown as he listens to the eulogy by his brother, written by his sister, and then when disposing of the ashes a neighbor complains leaving both brothers to admonish the man. Admonish though in a very comedic way, where Brown instantly shifts to the state we'll see as the typical mode of Cliff with a quiet dismissive exasperation as he yells out his insults as though that is his natural state. We follow that as he and Monk talk things over after the funeral. Brown and Wright have strong chemistry because you do sense in their interactions both the distance and connection of brothers. The distance in their differing lives and the relationship with their father and family, where you see in Brown a callous indifference and a very blunt delivery towards it all. He's not hollow, not completely heartless, but in Brown's eyes is a man who wants to be past, well, the past. Where we see connection is actually when the two insult each other for different reasons, often petty, but it's played nicely as at the end of every insult and every reaction Brown shows a little smile and you are granted the sense of their history actually within the conflict.

Brown comes in and out of the film, mostly for quick scenes of comedy where he is often presented as the challenger of Monk's state of superiority by being a much more callous voice of maybe not reason, certainly cynicism but also sometimes reality. Brown mixes petulance with honesty in his performance that contains a definite comedic quality in the ease with which he broaches these moments but in his eyes there is an intensity speaking towards some sense of what's really going on inside him. And what that is that Cliff is a divorced plastic surgeon and in fact a gay man, who never came out to his father, and his mother with dementia also does not recall this. And we have a key moment of this when we see a greater warmth in Brown's work as he dances with his mother, before she brings up a dismissive remark towards his homosexuality, and Brown storms off. His portrayal of this is almost a falling into a base dismay as the state the man just is simply used to and almost expects it with an ire, but an ire he always couches in cynical humor. We get the heart of this in a key conversation with Monk where the two discuss where they are in their lives and both let their guards down a bit. And Brown is good in easing into a quiet vulnerability in his eyes when he notes the unfortunate fact that his father never knew or accepted the real him, and it is a moving moment of Brown naturally revealing the hurt son behind all the one liners. And that is much of what Brown does here is to provide contrast to Wright's Monk and more frequently criticism in a few scenes, that is comedic but with an emotional core. Brown delivers on both sides and is a good scene partner for Wright. I do wish though the writing behind some of his one liners was a little stronger and maybe there was a bit more meat in certain sections such as a minor subplot involving their family housekeeper where Cliff treats her as nothing but she treats him as family. An idea with potential but literally handled by two lines in the film. But to Brown's credit he's good at portraying sort of the blithe indifference of the first line and then the caught off guard emotional realization of the second. And on the comedic side I kind of wish Brown had gotten into the satire of Monk’s phony book for more than just one brief scene at the end of the film, where we get a quick mildly amusing back and forth between brothers, which does show progression as we know see no direct callousness and bit more just overt warmth between the two even if they're still insulting one another. But with all these wishes I might have, this is still a good performance, that truly is supporting, as we see Cliff support the main story of Monk/Wright effectively throughout thanks to Brown's performance. A performance that carries the humor and heartache of the character with relative ease, even if perhaps I wish there was a little more of the former and maybe just a little more depth to the latter.