30 Posts in 30 Days Challenge

American Symphony Review: A Symphony — Or Just an Interlude?

Heineman’s documentary is moving but leaves you wanting more.

Image courtesy of Netflix.

Nominated For: Best Original Song (It Never Went Away, Music and lyrics by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson)

My Rating: 3.5/5

I’ve never heard of Jon Batiste and I can’t forget him.

Matthew Heineman’s heartfelt documentary captures the highs and the lows of Batiste and his partner Suleika Jaouad as they go through a year of extremes. But is it truly an American symphony or a romantic interlude?

American Symphony was supposed to follow Batiste during the biggest challenge in his musical career. A symphony to be performed only once in Carnegie Hall in NYC. A chance to rewrite the history of the genre, to include influences from America’s rich musical history. Jazz, Folk, Avantgarde. To show, in his words, “what America is about.”

Life had other plans.

The year is 2022, a pivotal year for Batiste. The standout artist has just been nominated for 11 Grammys. That same day his partner Suleika Jaouad goes into chemotherapy. Her leukemia is back.

How can one handle such intense highs and lows, she asks?

By creating, perhaps. Jaouad, a successful writer and author of the Life, Interrupted column in The New York Times, paints to deal with her reality. Meanwhile, Batiste is on tour. Touching moments on stage live side by side with doctor visits. While American Symphony does not shy back from life’s uglier sides, it makes sure to mix in a dose of light humor. It’s a bonafide love movie above all.

For all the emotional punch, however, the documentary keeps its main character at a distance. We never learn much about his past. Flashbacks narrate Batiste’s ascent from street musician to being the band leader for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. There was always pushback, he says, he needed to create his own space. Which space exactly? I wish Heineman spent more time inspecting the musician and the creation of the symphony, which seems like a side plot.

We don’t listen to music because it sounds good. We listen because it sounds inevitable. (Batiste)

Batiste is an electrifying performer, one born to be in the spotlight. Riddled with anxiety in his personal life, lots of shots show him distressed, with a pillow over his head. But when he’s on stage we see behind his facade. Playing the piano, he is at his most vulnerable and his most human. These scenes resonate.

Does art heal, does it help overcome? These questions hang in the air. Heineman is invested in exploring Batiste’s and Jaouad’s relationship, yet creates a curious tension between the movie’s themes. There is an urgency to many intimate scenes, a feeling as if you are in the same room as the couple, witnessing their struggles. It’s a rare quality.

What about the concert at Carnegie Hall, the American Symphony itself? We get a glimpse, all too short. At one point during the performance, the power goes off on stage. There is silence, and in a scene that encapsulates the movie, Batiste seizes the day with a furious piano solo.

The air glows. Jaouad watches in awe. It’s sweet and inevitable.

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Part of my Medium challenge — 30 Posts in 30 Days

Day 17/30

I Got 55 New Followers in 2 Weeks On Medium — Stat Time