American Symphony

This film was our pick for a recent Sunday matinee and was a good choice for a sunny afternoon with bad air quality. It was a documentary about the super-talented Jon Batiste and his creation of a symphony to be performed at Carnegie Hall. But it was also about the unexpected recurrence of his partner's (and now wife's) cancer from a decade ago. I love movies about the artistic process and how artists and musicians create their work, and this didn't disappoint in any regard. Batiste is a joyful, uplifting person no matter what they're going through and the love and compassion they have for each other is truly inspiring.

This is from the Obamas' production company, Higher Ground, and you can see their spirit if not their hand in the finished product. We weren't sure if we were going to enjoy this as we thought it would be sad, but it was ultimately beautiful, touching, and insightful. It's a bummer it didn't get a Best Documentary Oscar nom but I definitely recommend it, playing on Netflix.

What was I expecting? The typical rock star vibe, I guess. Absolutely wrong! Not even close. This is an amazing film about a person who is more than we suppose him to be.

John Baptiste is an amazing human, amazing musician, so much feeling expressed through thoughts, actions, movement, embracing everyone, leading everyone. Feeling expressed as action, music, words, thoughts. It is a heavy burden to carry. This film portrays all of this so well that you feel what is happening. You do not just watch it. And it is not all happy but it is moving towards a better outcome.

Now, I want to know more about this interesting person through his music, through his good works, through his writing. Our world is made better, larger with him in it, I feel somehow. I need to experience his music to understand more. And this film, this documentary, is an exceptional way to experience the mystery that is John Baptiste.

American Symphony is an incredibly personal documentary that strikes a very strong balance between its portrayal of the artistic process and a beautiful relationship. It may be conventional but when it's so well crafted and its story is so emotionally resonant it's near impossible not to be moved or affected by any of this.

Jon Batiste is very open here, showing so much in what feels like a very real look at his life and struggles. A magnetic presence when on the stage yet so humbling and relatable in everyday life. It's so interesting to watch his ideas forming in real time whilst his relationship with Suleika Jaouad gives the film its strongest moments.

Matthew Heineman's direction manages to be very cinematic in its construction whilst still being able to maintain a consistent sense of intimacy. The structure of the film is really good too, building to the titular symphony in classic biopic fashion which gives it so much weight. Batiste's music and closing song really compliments everything and further foregrounds his undeniable talent.

Jon Batiste was first imprinted in my mind during Covid when The Stephen Colbert Show closed for the night. The undeniable positive, creative energy. A beautiful human who heals souls. I am not a religious person but now and again you come across humans who are just that.

Clearly the documentary shows you the other side and the very real struggle to not only helplessly stand by while your partner suffers but everything else. Eternal hope and realism and pure love.

This was my first introduction to Suleika. What a force and gorgeous artist. She makes me want to pick up my paint brushes again.

They are making quite an imprint in this world. Individually and ultimately together.

Thank you for making this movie. Kleenex thanks you too.

2022 was the best of times, the worst of times for Jon Batiste and Suleika Janouad.

Both. Everywhere. All at once. In every moment.

It was the year the couple married. It was the year Jon left his high-profile gig leading the band on The Late Show with Steven Colbert. He would go on to win five Grammys, including the coveted Album of the Year, which hadn't been won by a Black artist in more than a decade.

Although Suleika's bestselling "Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted" would be acclaimed as one of the best books of the 2022, she would spend most of the year in hospital beds, receiving chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and other treatments for the recurrence of acute myeloid leukemia, a rare condition that had first stricken her a decade earlier.

On September 22 of that year, Jon Batiste premiered his "American Symphony" in Carnegie Hall. His wife was in the audience.

These events provide the framework for Matthew Heineman's powerfully affecting documentary that shares the title of Batiste's musical creation. Its Higher Ground production company was created by Michelle Obama and her husband in 2018 with the goal of lifting diverse voices in the entertainment industry. It's playing on Netflix.

It feels meant to be, writing about "American Symphony" after recent blogs reviewing "Maestro" and "American Fiction." They have a lot in common. Like "Maestro," it presents a loving marriage of creative giants, the husband fulfilling his artistic genius, the wife beset by setbacks and pain beyond belief.

Like "American Fiction," it focuses on a brilliant Black artist staking his creative claim in a society built on a foundation of the enslavement of his race. (The similarity of the films' titles is unfortunate, confusing and diluting each's powerful impact during this awards season.) Except, unlike the other two films, "American Symphony" doesn't have actors. It has the actual people. They're not acting, they're living their lives.

Filmmaker Heineman is the third member of their marriage, capturing an intimacy that rarely makes its way to the screen. He's there with them in their bedroom or her hospital bed, as they grapple with everything coming their way. In one light-hearted interlude, Suleika takes Jon to the snow. He has never sledded before. We ride down the hill with them, lost for a moment in giddy, silly escape.

But not for long.

Pain, isolation and discomfort are givens in Suleika's illness. What's not expected is the resilience, philosophical strength and occasional bursts of humor she finds to face them. In her bed she starts painting giraffes. They quite good, actually.

By her side supporting her, Jon is also up against a different set of challenges. Scion of a New Orleans musical dynasty, his gifts transported him to Juilliard en route to a rarified place in the musical hierarchy where fame itself may become his greatest danger.

Heineman - and his three co-cinematographers - transport us into his brain, recording telephone sessions with Jon's therapist flowing into voice-over commentary that unflinchingly probes his artistic process, and the insecurities besetting artists no matter how much acclaim they achieve.

The documentary was filmed in the time of Covid, but finds endless expressiveness in its characters' eyes. When they remove their masks, their faces are visually striking element in the film's grand design. Jon's smile is sunshine; his dance moves are joy itself.

The creation of Batiste's symphony provides a plot of sorts, as he mines deep ore in all the cultures that have produced "America," beginning with the Indigenous people who were here when the Whites arrived, bringing the Blacks in chains a short time later. He melds their sounds into a musical masterwork that defies labels - classical, jazz, roots, blues, bebop, hip-hop and a hundred others - because it's them all.

But the film's real symphony isn't just the music. It's the two people/ at the center of the story, bravely leading us on this wondrous journey into their souls.