American Symphony

American Symphony

Approximately at the midpoint of Matthew Heineman’s “American Symphony,” a single moment occurs that is genuinely transcendent. What has been an almost too hyper cut and frenetic film literally stops. Jon Batiste, multi-hyphenate artist extraordinaire, is on stage, where he says, “I want to dedicate this last one to Suleika.” And then he pauses.

For a very long time. (It’s actually the image above.) You can see the emotion wash over his face, but I swear you can also see him collect that emotion before he funnels it through his hands into his piano. He keeps his eyes closed as he plays as if he’s trying to squish his feelings deeper into his art. It is quite literally breathtaking and the heart of what this movie is about: How art is the only way we can truly process that human emotion that cannot be put into words.

The director of “Cartel Land” and “Retrograde” spent some time with Stephen Colbert’s band leader and “Soul” Oscar winner Batiste in early 2022 when his life was Dickensian in its contrasts. On the same day that he found out he was nominated for 11 Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, he learned that his partner Suleika Jaouad’s dormant cancer had returned. All while Batiste was undertaking his most ambitious artistic endeavor yet, “American Symphony,” a musical project designed to incorporate generations of music, putting more focus on people of color than history has often allowed with symphonies. Planning a huge show at Carnegie Hall is stressful; doing it while watching your favorite person in the world go through chemotherapy barely computes.

And truthfully it still barely computes after watching “American Symphony.” Despite enough positive messaging and moving material to warrant a spot on Netflix (which still might happen for all I know), there becomes an increasing sense of guardedness as Batiste and Jaouad’s story moves into its more intense chapters. We don’t really get a full handle on the artistic process of the creation of the symphony or the fear that comes with fighting cancer. Oh, it is there, but it is often in sound bites of voiceover or quick glimpses of intimate moments. Heineman is a very smart filmmaker, so I have to believe that the feeling that we’re only being allowed so far into this couple’s life together is on the part of the subjects.

There’s a sense of performance in many of the scenes with Batiste that’s made even stranger through its absence. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being moved by Batiste’s overall worldview about art and expression that he so often shares, but there are quiet moments between him and Jaouad that give the film its real emotional foundation. I wanted some more of that observation some more of those times when the emotion bubbled up in Batiste, and there wasn’t a piano around to channel it through although maybe there’s something pure about the fact that the most emotionally honest scene in this movie is also just one where Batiste is alone at a piano.

Ultimately, among the strongest points of “American Symphony” another undercurrent which could have been presented more directly is contained in something Suleika says when Jon’s greatest achievement as an artist comes together with the reappearance of her cancer: “I truly don’t understand what to do with such polarities.”

It seems that the pandemic created a lot of juxtapositions when joy would exist alongside such widespread suffering. I dealt with a depression that has consumed me during the intersection of some of the most formative moments in my life largely my beautiful children growing up and losing some of the people dearest to me in recent memory.

But isn’t that just life? They know we all keep those extremes, especially now. Heineman, Batiste and Jaouad have made a movie that proves Suleika’s statement wrong if nothing else. She does know what to do with them; she holds them within her partner’s love and her art’s expression. This film captures how healing isn’t what art does; it’s how we live. And each can write their own symphony, especially given someone who makes us want to try.

Watch American Symphony For Free On Gomovies.