Doc Corner: 'American Symphony' is a biography misfire
Thursday, December 21, 2023 at 3:00PM 
Director Matthew Heineman has made a name for himself covering warzones in narrative film (A Private War) and most prominently in documentary (City of Ghosts, Cartel Land). I don’t blame him for stepping back just this once and making a movie about a charming musician and his rise to zeitgeist prominence. The film is American Symphony about Jon Batiste, a soft lob of a tribute that somewhat perversely is the film that could very well win him an Academy Award. Even documentarians can follow the same tried-and-tested path. I just wish I liked it more.
Batiste is 37 years old. American Symphony doesn’t say this stat outright as far as I recall, but it goes to great pains to make the audience very well aware that he is some sort of wunderkind. A Juilliard graduate who landed a big break as bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and then shocked people by winning four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year as well as an Oscar for the original score to Pixar animation Soul.
I’ll be honest when I say I don’t know if I fully “get” Jon Batiste. I spent much of the documentary’s 104 minutes being a bit perplexed as to how he managed to become such a prominent name—although one very brief moment of cultural reflection suggests that perhaps he hasn’t; is he actually more of a niche talent than the cultural phenomenon the rest of the movie tries desperately to show us he is? I think perhaps therein lies my issues with American Symphony: it is so utterly convinced of its subject’s status as one of the new, modern American greats that it largely forgets to show us why. Everybody that he and the film interact with is in such complete and utter dumbstruck awe of him and I felt as if I was going mad.
Even his partner, writer and activist Suleika Jaouad, through what is theoretically the doc’s most emotional and compelling sketches, constantly looks at him with dew-eyed wonder and admiration. That we’re too often showed Batiste winning awards and getting standing ovations while she battles cancer in hospital over any real meaningly observations from her makes it particularly hard to latch onto.
None of this is helped by what observations we do get. Passed to us through narration that bears the tortured scars of being heavily scripted. Batiste and Jaouad often speak in vaguely inspirational riddles, skirting around the thornier edges of a life and career that goes largely unexamined. I’m mostly thankful we’re saved from the monotony of talking heads, although maybe they would have perked the film up and allowed the viewer to learn more about the man that he himself is willing to show us. One less scene of his band or his friends or just other musicians telling us he's a genius while he stands right next to them might've been appreciated. American Symphony becomes brand-service pretty quickly, his feelgood nice guy showmanship grating to a similar degree as his raw musicianship and talent makes me want to dance (when we get to hear it).
That the titular American Symphony goes largely unseen and unheard is also disappointing, although it’s easy to imagine once grand plans got thrown into disarray by the diagnosis of Jaouad. Even though that, the film tries—successfully, but to what end—to suggest Batiste’s life is the real symphony. Fine if that’s your directorial thesis, but it’s not a very interesting one to not show the notes beneath the sounds (to use a poorly thought out metaphor; hey, I’m not the genius here!). The sheen and the gloss that has made me question the integrity of Heineman’s other documentaries is here in double, slickly packaged for Netflix. The credits staying up just long enough for the Oscar-qualifying original song to play in full only to shrink away once its over. As a documentary, it doesn’t come across as very interested in Jon Batiste. As a biography of Jon Batiste, it seems to focus on all the wrong things.
Release: Streaming worldwide on Netflix.
Award chances: Definitely an Oscar frontrunner if if can get the nomination (which seems likely).
Doc Corner, Jon Batiste, Matthew Heineman, documentaries
Reader Comments (5)
Aw, too bad. I don't know about genius, but I do think Jon Batiste is hugely talented and a hell of a live performer - a shame if the doc doesn't highlight that.
If you don't fully get Jon Batiste, then perhaps you should not be charged with writing an opinion piece. American Symphony isn't a Jon Batiste biography, therefore making the things focused on, not wrong. Maybe you were surprised with his Grammy nods soon after leaving Colbert, because of your obvious, and self proclaimed lack of knowledge on himself and the subject. If you ever watched Batiste on Colbert, it wouldn't take a musical virtuoso to see that this man had worn his talent welcome and needed to break free. Grammy nods were obviously the next step
I implore you to take a deeper dive into the subject. In the meantime, stick to writing what you know
Strongly disagree with Kelly on only writing what you know. I appreciate the frank review of this documentary. I often watch documentaries I know nothing about the subjects and then write Letterboxd reviews. I’m grateful that this article wasn’t just another puff piece about Batiste. I really don’t get him either.
The first rule of writing a commentary, Glenn Charlie Dunks, is to know or learn something about the topic. If you didn’t know anything about Jon Batiste you must have been living in a cave. The documentary isn’t a concert, it’s about his journey from a master artist who learned his craft in New Orleans and was topping off his successes with a symphony at Carnegie Hall.
I, too, would like to see the entire piece performed, but that’s not what the documentary is about. It is a beautiful and heart warming tale about the lives of two people, not just Jon. If it didn’t leave you with a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye, well that just one more reason why you’re not the guy who should be writing the review.
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