‘The Piano Lesson’ Review: Malcolm Washington’s Promising Debut Feature Makes Him One to Watch Out For | Telluride

Malcolm Washington’s directorial debut, The Piano Lesson, doesn’t start out like the original source material from stage by the legendary playwright August Wilson. Instead of jumping right into the world of the characters known within the Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony-nominated play, we take a look to the past on a night of celebration in a small Mississippi town; July 4, 1911. As the local firework show is on full display for the mostly white spectators in attendance, Boy Charles (Stephan James), alongside his brothers Doaker and Wining Boy, bring in a wagon and some ropes to tie down a piano found in the Sutter house. A young Boy Willie is their look out, as he is supposed to keep an eye out in case the Sutters return home early, as they take back this elegant musical instrument that is part of their family history, with carvings make on all sides of the piano with the faces of the family members they lost over the years while they were enslaved. As they successfully get the piano into the wagon, two paths are formed for the Charles family, where the uncles take their brother’s children away from the Sutter plantation and moves them up north to the setting of our story, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the other one finds Boy Charles sticking around to make sure they escape with the piano, facing his demise at the hand of the Sutter’s men and the local authority. A night where fire and blood are spilled in the name of reclaiming ancestral freedom comes with a haunting price, delivering a brilliant, gorgeous start to Washington’s cinematic vision of Wilson’s celebrated material.

Flash forward twenty-five years after these events, we find Boy Willie (John David Washington) grown up, looking to gain back the land that his father and others work to the bone on. He, alongside his childhood friend Lymon (Ray Fisher), have brought up a whole truck of watermelons to sell to the people of Pittsburgh in order to get financially closer to his goal of buying the Sutters’ land. But in order to fully be able to buy the land, he would need to convince his sister, Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler), to sell the family piano, which she has secured at their Uncle Doaker’s (Samuel L. Jackson) house, where she and her daughter Maretha (Skylar Aleece Smith) live. In traditional of the material of August Wilson, we watch Boy Willie vociferously express the thesis of his return home to his family, knowing that selling the piano is the only way he can make a path for himself to make a mark in this world, and doing it with the land his father showed him how to be a farmer on is his way of find peace from the past. But Berniece doesn’t see the vision her brother sees, as she sees that giving up something so precious and important to the family would be a grave mistake. As the two verbally tussle back and forth, Lymon and Doaker do as the audience do, watch a divide within the bloodline that comes together multiple times throughout the film with great effect as Washington and Deadwyler perfectly convey the eagerness of Boy Willie’s wants, Berniece’s fears of granting his request, and both of their stubbornness to compromise. The only issue with some of these confrontational scenes between the two Charles’ siblings is that is when the film feels the most like the stage material carrying the load instead of Malcolm Washington’s directional vision that is displayed throughout the film.

As the film goes on, and we see this family slowly come back together over the course of a couple of days, we see the expansion of Wilson’s material via the savvy decision making by director Washington. Instead of just allowing Doaker to explain the origin story of the family piano like in Wilson’s play, we are able to flashback in time to the painful creation of this musical instrument and the toll it has brought to this family over the course of its existence. This is where Jackson’s performance as Doaker shines the most, as we hear him tell his nephew and Lymon why he thinks Berniece won’t sell that piano, and it is some of the best work Jackson has done in years. In a performance he was Tony-nominated in 2023 for, Jackson provides the calm voice of reason amongst the hostility between Boy Willie and Berniece, and his presence is necessary to making the overall story effective. In telling this story about the piano, Doaker also explains the origins of “Ghosts of the Yellow Dog,” whom many in the film, including Boy Willie, believe were the ones responsible for the death of Sutter, who we ghostly see pushed down a well. They are described by Doaker as he ghosts of Boy Charles and those who died with him while trying to escape their captures (we also see the tragic burning of the box car that Boy Charles was killed in, one of the most arresting images found in the film as Washington lingers the camera to see the fire rise). By taking the piano, and the sudden death of Sutter, a curse seems to loom large over the family as their tempers rise as decisions get closer and closer to being made. While Jackson’s Doaker does his best to weather the storm, the climax of the film evolves into a full supernatural, familial battle for the soul of the Charles, needing the help of those who are gone to protect their loved ones one last time in one of the most emotional, thrilling end sequences of the year.

Beyond the potent supernatural elements found in the film, we also have several beautiful, ground character moments in almost each character, showcasing the pain they are living with on a daily basis, and a desire to move above their station for something more. This is not just something Boy Willie wants, but also Lymon, Berniece, their Uncle Wining Boy (Michael Potts), and Avery Brown (Corey Hawkins), a family friend of the Charles’ family and a man who has his eyes for Berniece. Almost every actor has a scene or two to provide levity and flesh out Wilson’s original text via a striking work of adaptation by Virgil Williams and Malcolm Washington. John David Washington is the only one who doesn’t seize the moment to allow Boy Willie from the stage (where he played the character before with Jackson) and make us really feel for his situation beyond his entail desires and stiffs with Berenice. However, his counterpart Ray Fisher provides the surprise performance of the film, giving Lymon grace and tenderness of a simple man who wants to no longer be alone in his world. As we see his story play out throughout the film’s runtime, we see this gorgeous hunk of a man (his arms are on the verge of shattering through the shirts he is wearing from scene to scene) become a tragic tale of the lonely people in our lives that’s heart is open for more, but the world is ready for them to have that yet.

Speaking of an open heart, this is where Deadwyler and Hawkins come into play, as Berniece and Avery have a quarrel at about the halfway point of the film that showcases the impressive range of both actors, and our ability to believe in their complicated relationship. While it may seem simple that Berniece isn’t ready to move on and marry Avery after the loss of her former lover (and Boy Willie’s best friend) Crawley. Deadwyler beautifully carries the sorrow of a woman with a broken heart that might not ever be able to put it back together, and Hawkins is just as excellent as he is in conveying his love for her, even though it might be a case of two ships crossing in the night, destined to not come together. Deadwyler’s overall work in The Piano Lesson is nothing short of a transcendent, magnificent performance as a woman that’s been through it all, and is just trying to survive to the next day to make a good place for her and her daughter, while also carrying a heavy heart for the past. Her contribution to the final moments of the film is bone chilling, cementing her portrayal of Berniece as the new standard for the portrayal of the character going forward. It is marvelous work that will remain as some of the best of the year by any actor.

For a debut feature film, Malcolm Washington shows massive promise behind the camera working alongside cinematographer Mike Gioulakis (whose lensing here is very reminiscent of his exceptional work in Jordan Peele’s Us), editor Leslie Jones (who has cut – films from Terence Malick and Paul Thomas Anderson) and Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water, The Grand Budapest Hotel). Each member of this team helped Washington build an inviting, exciting, haunting experience that features standout moments lifted by an all-star cast, even if his leading actor doesn’t come close to his fellow ensemble member’s dramatic heights from scene to scene. In creating the right tone and space for the piece, he provides moments that elegant his take on Wilson’s work to a whole other level. In a segment that is a contender for the best scene of the year, the four men (Boy Willie, Lymon, Doaker, and Wining Boy) perform a ‘work song’ (“Berta”) while catching up and drinking some good liquor. As each man takes their part in singing the song, you can feel their pain they endured when learning that song as well as the adulation and jubilance of freedom also found in their voice and feet as they stomp on the floor or hit their palms off the table. It’s a perfect encapsulation of what makes The Piano Lesson a profound look into a family’s relationship with the past, and how embracing it can cleanse their souls to carry on their own version of a legacy.

Grade: B

This review is from the 2024 Telluride Film Fesitval where The Piano Lesson had its world premiere. Netflix will release the film in select theaters on November 8 and on Netflix November 22.