X
- 2023
- PG-13
- Netflix
- 1 h 44 m
- 2023
- PG-13
- Netflix
- 1 h 44 m
Summary In 2022, musician Jon Batiste finds himself the most celebrated artist of the year with eleven Grammy nominations including Album of the Year. In the midst of that triumph Jon embarks on his most ambitious challenge to date, composing an original symphony. This trajectory was upended when Batiste’s life partner — best-selling author Sule...
Directed By: Matthew Heineman
- 2023
- PG-13
- Netflix
- 1 h 44 m
- 2023
- PG-13
- Netflix
- 1 h 44 m
American Symphony
76
5.4
Where to Watch
Summary In 2022, musician Jon Batiste finds himself the most celebrated artist of the year with eleven Grammy nominations including Album of the Year. In the midst of that triumph Jon embarks on his most ambitious challenge to date, composing an original symphony. This trajectory was upended when Batiste’s life partner — best-selling author Sule...
Directed By: Matthew Heineman
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
76
82% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
18% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
76
82% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
18% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
It’s intimate, quiet, lovely, and in spite of the melancholy, there are moments of real connection and joy.
While some of the backstage material has an official feel (Batiste and Jaouad are listed among the many executive producers, along with Barack and Michelle Obama), the documentary does not shy from showing private moments.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 19 User Ratings
5.4
42% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
37% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
21% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 19 User Ratings
5.4
42% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
37% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
21% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
What makes this documentary more attractive is not just the music; They are the efforts to combat an illness through courage, love and music itself. One of the documentaries that will surely have its place at the award ceremonies.
Report
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.
Report
Moving and musical, this is a striking portrait of courage and creativity in the face of some horrific odds chucked at you by life’s lottery.
A celebration of art, resilience and the mutability of the human spirit, Matthew Heineman‘s American Symphony never feels like it’s quite the documentary that its director originally intended it to be. Nor does it tell the story that featured star Jon Batiste presumably hoped for it to chronicle. But it’s all the more joyful and emotionally resonant for those deviations.
This is a film that captures how art isn’t just how we heal; it’s how we live. And how we can each write our own symphony, especially if we have someone who inspires us to do so.
American Symphony itself is at its most mundane when focused on the professional life of the rousing, youthful musical multihyphenate. And, because it builds its structure around the creation and premiere of his first symphony, much of the film bundles that mundanity into the kind of behind-the-scenes footage accompanying a concert doc.
Matthew Heineman realmente tem essa pegada intimista, como no filme "uma guerra pessoal", navegando sobre intenções subjetivas de seus personagens. Assim, filmas o projeto "American Symphony" do músico Jon Batiste mantem essa pegada, mesmo que deixe a desejar enquanto cinema, é muito eficaz no seu objetivo biográfico.
Jon Batiste é um jovem negro dos EUA, e sinceramente, nunca tinha ouvido falar até o presente documentário. Fiquei absolutamente surpreso em ver sua colaboração com diversos artistas e seu reconhecimento por sua contribuição para o mundo da música, como retratado no Grammy. Ele também é o líder da banda no programa "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert".
Parece que estamos assistindo a um making off de seu projeto American Symphony, apresentado no Carnegie Hall, em Nova Iorque, em setembro de 2022. Ocorre que o cantor, com uma agenda lotada de shows, além de ter que se desdobrar num ano extremamente puxado profissionalmente (a cena em que ele está na cama estafado), tem que conviver com a descoberta do câncer da sua esposa, sem contar inúmeras falas que ressaltam o protagonismo preto do nosso retratado.
Assim, o documentário faz questão de nos lembrar essas dificuldades, e tenta controlar o peso do que seria facilmente visto como vitimização do protagonista, o que não é o caso: o filme de fato mostra as dificuldades de um artista negro, suas batalhas profissionais e pessoas, e o faz com bastante equilíbrio.
As cenas finais apresentando o espetáculo, mesmo com problemas técnicos na produção, demonstram um grande artista em tela: explode talento e carisma. Uma bela homenagem para um artista ainda vivo, embora, como dito, enquanto cinema não seja lá tão marcante.
Report
Production Company
Higher Ground Productions,
Mercury Studios,
Our Time Projects
Release Date Nov 24, 2023
Duration 1 h 44 m
Rating PG-13
Genres
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards
• 2 Wins & 6 Nominations
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 1 Win & 4 Nominations
