‘Chevalier’ Review: An Electric Kelvin Harrison Jr. Can’t Quite Save The Biopic Clichés Of A Revisionist Black Mozart [TIFF]
As history lessons go, it’s a fascinating one: Joseph Bologne, born to a married plantation proprietor and a Creole woman his white father held as a slave in the French colony of Guadeloupe, would grow up to attain such repute as a violinist, composer, and conductor that he was granted the title of Chevalier de Saint-Georges then and “the Black Mozart” now. In the pitchy biopic “Chevalier,” he earns this sobriquet in a literal capacity by storming into a concert from Wolfgang himself, already in progress, challenging him to a violin battle, and owning him so hard that the crowd bursts into a rabid standing ovation.