Rating - 6.8:
Overall, a film very similar to other August Wilson works, as it uses authentic dialogue and good acting, especially from Danielle Deadwyler, to tell a profound story; but the movie is held back by its amateur filmmaking and inconsistent tone.
Direction - Pretty Bad:
The direction on a macroscale feels very amateur and not that well executed; the direction on a microscale is fine as it mimics other August Wilson movies in that it allows the actors to act with minimal intervention, similar to a play; the storytelling is a bit muddy as they did not know what tone they wanted to go with throughout the movie; tension is not built that well because they try to force this horror, ghost story that is not that well executed
Story - Decent:
The concept deviates from the original play and makes the movie an unnecessary supernatural ghost story, which kind of hurts the story dealing with the generational trauma from their ancestors; the plot structure is nothing special; the character writing is not that great because they keep introducing many characters and do not do a good job providing them backstory to make you root for them, except for maybe Deadwyler's character
Screenplay - Good:
The dialogue is very authentic to the source material and other August Wilson works; the humor is pretty true to other August Wilson works; the symbolism is profound as the whole movie deals with generational trauma this family has dealt with from slavery and racism; the foreshadowing is present but kinda expected
Acting - Pretty Good to Good:
Samuel L. Jackson - Good (Feels like he pulls a lot from his experience as an actor in this role, but he does not feel like he is used as much as he should have been), John David Washington - Pretty Good to Good (Plays the lead role decently well, as this character feels like it plays to his strengths as an actor), Ray Fisher - Pretty Bad (Really feels off in comparison to the rest of the cat as his comedic humor feels very forced), Michael Potts - Pretty Good to Good, Erykah Badu - Pretty Good, Skylar Aleece Smith - Pretty Good, Danielle Deadwyler - Very Good (Steals the show in all her scenes as she shows a wide range of emotions and accurately displays a mother trying to hold onto her family and ancestry), Corey Hawkins - Good (Plays his role well and has good chemistry with Deadwyler), Rest of the cast - Pretty Good to Good (The cast as a whole works well together; it was evident that the director let the actors act in a way similar to the play)
Score - Decent:
Used decently well throughout the movie; for a movie called 'The Piano Lesson' it would have been great to have at least heard one piano motif throughout the movie, so not having this feels like a wasted opportunity
Cinematography - Pretty Bad:
Felt pretty amateur and not that well executed, especailly in the climax
Editing - Pretty Bad:
Felt pretty amateur
Sound - Pretty Good:
Helps enhance those horror elements
Visual Effects - Pretty Bad:
Felt pretty tacky
Production Design - Good:
Felt authentic to the time period
Costumes - Good:
Felt authentic to the time period
Pacing - Pacing is pretty slow as it tries to mimic the play's pacing
Climax - Climax is chaotic and poorly executed; the ending felt very anticlimactic
Tone - Tone is a big issue for this movie because there never felt like there was a consistent tone as they tried to make this movie both a historical drama and a ghost story; they tried to do a lot of things and couldn't do any of them well
Final Notes - Saw premiere at the Austin Film Festival.
