Every year, Netflix releases a couple of movies not just because they might get watched by millions of subscribers but also because they might be able to contend for awards. While those movies aren’t guaranteed to be good, 2024’s The Piano Lesson just so happens to be worth your time.
The movie, which is adapted from an August Wilson play of the same name, tells the story of an impromptu reunion of a Black family in the 1950s. As they battle with one another over their own history, and a piano that is tied up in it, things take a turn for the supernatural. Here are three reasons the movie is worth watching this December.
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It’s decidedly cinematic
Adaptations of stage plays can feel a little bit flat if they’re done wrong. Plays are, by their nature, set in just a few locations, and typically emphasize dialogue and performances in order to leave an impact. Movies have a broader canvas, and as a result, you can sometimes tell when a movie has been adapted from a play.
While The Piano Lesson retains some of the staginess of its source material, the film, directed by Malcolm Washington, also has a few decisively cinematic touches, including an extended prologue and poetic imagery that wouldn’t have been possible on the stage.
It features several blockbuster performances
John David Washington and Danielle Deadwyler are the two leads in The Piano Lesson, and both of them deliver ferocious central performances. Washington plays a young man determined to make something of himself by purchasing the land that he and his family once worked, and selling the family piano to make that plan a reality.
Deadwyler plays his sister, a woman driven by faith who believes in what the piano represents. They’re surrounded by great performances from the rest of the ensemble, including Samuel L. Jackson, but these two really shine together.
It retains the play’s brilliant language
Although The Piano Lesson is decidedly more cinematic than the play was, the movie has the benefit of the dialogue that comes with an August Wilson play. Wilson’s plays are canonical classics for a reason, and there are several monologues contained in The Piano Lesson that rival anything put onscreen this year.
In the capable hands of the actors in this ensemble, the movie’s language soars, even as it still feels like the believable dialogue of a working-class Black family striving to make something of their lives.
The Piano Lesson is streaming on Netflix.