The third film in Denzel Washington’s long-term project to bring the plays of August Wilson to the screen (after Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), The Piano Lesson is directed by Denzel’s son Malcolm, and features a stellar turn by Malcolm’s older brother, John David Washington. We are in Pittsburgh, 1936. Boy Willie (John David Washington) shows up unannounced at the home of his widowed sister, Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler). He brings with him a friend — Lymon (Ray Fisher) — a truckload of watermelons, and a plan to capitalize on the ornately carved piano that sits, neglected, in the living room. Berniece, however, is having none of it.
Aside from a prologue set in 1911 and a handful of brief flashbacks to slavery times, the action is predominantly restricted to the family parlour; the stage origins are obvious. But that’s no drawback when the dialogue is so richly marbled with resonant ideas, flavourful character, and emotional conflict. Wilson is grappling with the legacy of trauma, here, with different ways of coping with grief and exorcizing the past. It’s a riveting piece, superbly performed.
Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Erykah Badu, Skylar Aleece Smith
USA
2024
English
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Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Jennifer Roth, Constanza Romero Wilson, Katia Washington
Producer
Denzel Washington, Todd Black
Screenwriter
Virgil Williams, Malcolm Washington
Cinematography
Michael Gioulakis
Editor
Leslie Jones
Production Design
David J. Bomba
Original Music
Alexandre Desplat
Malcolm Washington
Malcolm Washington is a Los Angeles-born filmmaker known for his award-winning short Benny Got Shot (2016). After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and the American Film Institute, he has produced the short films Summer of ’17 (2017) and The Dispute (2019), and the feature North Hollywood (2021). The Piano Lesson is his feature film directorial debut.
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