Jeffrey Wright plays Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, an acclaimed but not commercially successful author who is annoyed at the stereotyping of black people in books intended for white people to ease their consciences - to paraphrase - "it's as if you can't portray a black man without a white boot on his neck". With family issues, his mother's growing illness, Monk needs money and so writes one of the books he so detests under a pseudonym. Inevitably it is praised to the skies, put up for awards and Hollywood wants to make a dumb film based on it. He's in a pickle.

I will admit that I thought Hollywood was incapable of making intelligent yet extremely funny comedies. So whilst inevitably this isn't from the big players, it's encouraging to see such a witty, touching and magnificently acted piece come out. Jeffrey Wright is fabulous as the witty author deeply frustrated at the appalling literature playing to the white crowd but somehow incapable of mastering day to day life. He certainly deserved his Oscar nod as did Sterling K Brown playing his irresponsible, funny but ultimately caring gay brother Cliff. Great film and a lot of laughs.