Follows the lives of the Charles family as they deal with themes of family legacy and more, in deciding what to do with an heirloom, the family piano.
Mississippi 4 July 1911. As the white landowners are outdoors enjoying thunderous Independence Day fireworks, young Black men, led by Boy Charles (Stephan James), break into one of their antebellum homes to take a piano with intricate carvings etching his family’s history from slavery to its wood panels. There is conflict from Boy Willie (John David Washington) who is keen to sell the heirloom, and Uncle Doaker (Samuel L Jackson) is a highlight as he takes a comically neutral - but not informed - stance to arguments over the piano and the ghosts shackled to it. This is the third film, after ‘Fences’ and ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’, that Denzel Washington has produced from playwright August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle. It’s also the finest.
USA 2024 Malcolm Washington 127m
