‘American Symphony’ Review: Jon Batiste Juggles Music Triumphs and Family Illness in an Intimate Music/Cancer Documentary
variety.comChris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Be kind, because everyone you meet is fighting a great battle” — that popular maxim (or some variation thereof) is often brought up in the context of remembering to have some sympathy for jerks.
But it could also be applied to people whose lives seem too charmed to be true. In the documentary “American Symphony,” Jon Batiste, who often comes off as the merriest performer in all of popular music, turns out to be dealing with grim stuff behind the grin.
It’s his wife, Suleika Jaouad, who’s waging the real war, against recurring leukemia. But Batiste is having his own skirmishes with anxiety and panic attacks related to her illness, even as he’s making headlines as the surprise Grammy hoarder of 2022.
So don’t hate him just because he seems so damn happy, the film suggests; he’s earned his ebullience. A Batiste doc might have seemed an unlikely next step for director Matthew Heineman, whose previous efforts (which include “Cartel Land” and the Syrian war film “City of Ghosts”) have established him as someone who deals in far tougher stuff than entertainment-world hagiographies.
Read more on variety.com