American Symphony
Reviews
Brent Marchant
Creating a great work of art is very much like creating a heartfelt, loving relationship. Both take work and commitment, both in good times and bad. The challenges can be difficult, but the rewards can be incalculable. Learning how to successfully maneuver through them, as well as how to strike a harmonious balance that keeps both ventures moving forward, is a skill that takes an array of abilities and aptitudes to master, but, as documentary filmmaker Matthew Heineman’s latest so deftly illustrates, it’s an attainable goal, the prevailing highs and lows notwithstanding. The film follows the extraordinary year experienced by musician/composer Jon Batiste and his wife, best-selling author Suleika Jaouad. In 2022, they came face to face with both ends of the spectrum of life. Batiste, an artist with an impressive musical range and repertoire, was reaching new heights in his career, winning five Grammy Awards while serving as band leader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and seeking to complete work on an ambitious composition aimed at reflecting the breadth of our national music, diversity and culture, American Symphony. At the same time, though, Jaouad suffered a recurrence of the cancer she battled a decade earlier, an illness she chronicled in writings that would come to launch a career; now, after a 10-year remission, she was facing a second, potentially risky bone marrow transplant to treat her condition, not to mention an uncertain future. With such seemingly polar opposite fates befalling them, Batiste and Jaouad struggled to get through their respective challenges while keeping their love and art alive, putting their successes into perspective in light of what they were up against otherwise. This intimate, heartstring-tugging documentary gives viewers a candid, up-close look at what a truly loving couple can experience under such diverse, trying and bittersweet circumstances, but without becoming manipulative or melodramatic. This beautifully photographed story provides an unfiltered depiction of the range of emotions that each partner goes through, particularly when it comes to its musings of the philosophical insights observed by each of the spouses. It also showcases Batiste’s wide-ranging musical styles, both in his performances and in his composition process. Admittedly, a few of this offering’s sequences meander a bit, but the overall production is skillfully edited and sensitively portrayed. “American Symphony” is a beautifully moving film, one that reinforces what matters most in life and what makes it worth living, during both good times and bad, as long as we have each other to make our way through it, bringing new meaning to what our marriage vows are ultimately all about.
CinemaSerf
Not being terribly steeped in my "American Roots" I was wondering just who Jon Batiste actually was and whether, Aaron Copland-style, we were going to get a modern day illustration of a man writing an art-form that would seem to have long gone out of fashion for the mainstream audiences to whom his Grammy-nominated music appealed. Sadly, not. What we get here is rather muddled documentary that tries to show us a little of the real man, of his wife Suleika - who is undergoing some pretty torrid treatment for leukaemia - all whilst we watch him write, have rather pained sessions with his shrink - "this is the train you are on!" but actually we see precious little of just how the man functions as a musician. As a creator of what he hopes will be a modern orchestral masterpiece to be showcased at a full Carnegie Hall, we just don't get anything like close enough to what makes him tick, what inspires his creativity. Clearly lockdown didn't help - nor are face masks great for microphones capturing dialogue - but the whole thing is a sprawl of a film that actually left me feeling that Batiste was a man who vacillated from the earnest to the entertaining as if it were a switch that was being turned on. Some of the hospital scenes were just downright intrusive - I felt distinctly uncomfortable being a fly on the wall for some of the consultations! I fear the technical simplicity of creating these sort of access all areas, fly-on-the-wall, documentaries is going to lead to many more of them in the coming years, but if they are to work they really do need a strong, independent, director who can construct a narrative that informs the audience, not just showcases the personality of star. It's worth a watch, I suppose, but there's not too much symphonic going on.
Movie Recommendation
The Kitchen2023-10-15Izi's close to escaping The Kitchen, one of London's last remaining housing estates. But when young Benji enters his life, he faces some hard decisions.More...
Showing Up2023-04-07In the days leading up to a possibly career-changing exhibition, a sculptor navigates her relationships with family, friends, and colleagues.More...
This Place2022-09-09Living in the liminal space between worlds, two young women find themselves falling in love for the first time, while also being forced to unexpectedly confront their families, each complicated by legacies of love and loss.More...
Cabrini2024-03-07Italian immigrant Francesca Cabrini arrives in 1889 New York City and is greeted by disease, crime, and impoverished children. Cabrini sets off on a daring mission to convince the hostile mayor to secure housing and healthcare for society's most vulnerable. With broken English and poor health, Cabrini uses her entrepreneurial mind to build an empire of hope unlike anything the world had ever seen.More...
V/H/S/852023-11-23Unveiled through a made-for-TV documentary, five chilling tales of found footage horror emerge to take viewers on a gore-filled journey through the grim underbelly of the forgotten 1980s.More...
Birth2004-10-29It took Anna 10 years to recover from the death of her husband, Sean, but now she's on the verge of marrying her boyfriend, Joseph, and finally moving on. However, on the night of her engagement party, a young boy named Sean turns up, saying he is her dead husband reincarnated. At first she ignores the child, but his knowledge of her former husband's life is uncanny, leading her to believe that he might be telling the truth.More...
Marguerite's Theorem2023-11-01The future of Marguerite, a brilliant student in Mathematics at the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure, seems all planned out. The only woman from her year, Marguerite is finishing a thesis she has to present to an audience of researchers. On the big day, a mistake shakes all her certainties and all her foundations collapse.More...
Intrusion2021-09-22When a husband and wife move to a small town, a home invasion leaves the wife traumatized and suspicious that those around her might not be who they seem.More...
Veronica Mars2014-03-13Years after walking away from her past as a teenage private eye, Veronica Mars gets pulled back to her hometown - just in time for her high school reunion - in order to help her old flame Logan Echolls, who's embroiled in a murder mystery.More...
In the Land of Saints and Sinners2023-10-06In a remote Irish village, a damaged Finbar is forced to fight for redemption after a lifetime of sins, but what price is he willing to pay? In the land of saints and sinners, some sins can't be buried.More...
DragonHeart1996-05-31In an ancient time when majestic fire-breathers soared through the skies, a knight named Bowen comes face to face and heart to heart with the last dragon on Earth, Draco. Taking up arms to suppress a tyrant king, Bowen soon realizes his task will be harder than he'd imagined: If he kills the king, Draco will die as well.More...
May December2023-11-16Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.More...
Dream Scenario2023-11-10Hapless family man Paul Matthews finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. But when his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom.More...
Thanksgiving2023-11-16After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts - the birthplace of the holiday. Picking off residents one by one, what begins as random revenge killings are soon revealed to be part of a larger, sinister holiday plan.More...
Wish2023-11-13Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force – a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe - the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico - to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen.More...
The Holdovers2023-10-27A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.More...
Napoleon2023-11-22An epic that details the checkered rise and fall of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and his relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his wife, Josephine.More...
Society of the Snow2023-12-15On October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, chartered to take a rugby team to Chile, crashes into a glacier in the heart of the Andes.More...
Dune: Part Two2024-02-27Follow the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, Paul endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.More...
Deadpool & Wolverine2024-07-24A listless Wade Wilson toils away in civilian life with his days as the morally flexible mercenary, Deadpool, behind him. But when his homeworld faces an existential threat, Wade must reluctantly suit-up again with an even more reluctant Wolverine.More...