American Symphony

Just absolutely beautiful! I seen the trailer on netflix which didn't really give much away apart from the beautiful music. it's a lot more than that though it it's a fantastic heartfelt story of a couple who are obviously deeply in love and face difficulties and challenges and to see how driven they are and the strength they draw from one another to get through their struggles and that translates in the music. Very emotional especially if you and your partner can relate to the struggles they face.

The whole documentary seemed unfocused and rambling to me. Much as I love Batiste's music, I wanted to see more focus on his wife Suleika's struggle with cancer and their support for one another. Whole sections focused too repetitively on his music . It couldn't have been tightened up and rearranged to be really powerful - instead, it was a lost opportunity to really pay tribute to love and creativity in partnership.

Seemed kind of a vanity project, didn't really go in depth to the creative process, didn't even show him performing music really until 45 minutes in, would have liked to learn more and hear more of his music instead of the personal stuff, as for his sick wife, every one has problems, should we care more about him cause he's on TV?

A brilliant and moving story of what it means to be human.

Generally when a Matthew Heineman film is put forth into the universe, it immediately moves to the top of my list! Unfortunately, his latest is as pretentious of a documentary as I've seen recently. Essentially this is an empty husk of feigned importance for a film that doesn't matter and will be forgotten shortly after watching. I'm relatively certain the subjects, musician Jon Batiste, and his wife, Suleika Jaouad, are nice people, but this came off so manufactured. Inauthentic at its core and it most certainly didn't make me a fan of Batiste, however talented he may be! Final Score: 3/10

Jon Batiste is obviously somewhat of a musical genius. Both he and his wife Suleika are very likeable subjects of this doco. The human moments dealing with cancer and anxiety etc are great but when it ended I felt as if more insight into the music would have held my attention more.

I'm on a journey to watch all of the 2024 Oscar nominees, and next up was American Symphony, a documentary about a year in the life of the five-time Grammy winning artist, Jon Batiste. American Symphony is fine, and I did like learning about Jon Batiste, an artist who I hadn't really heard of before his Oscar Nominations, though this documentary didn't go deep enough into his life for me, and it felt quite directionless. A lot of it also felt staged, and I don't know how much, if any of it was, but overall it really didn't feel like it knew where it was going, as it felt more like a bunch of random clips from his life edited together to make a documentary, rather than something that can actually teach you a lot or be entertaining. Overall it was okay, but I wouldn't exactly recommend it, unless you happen to be a big Jon Batiste fan and really want to know more about him, his wife and their relationship, though you would probably be better off watching an interview or just doing a Google search.

Great inside look into the triumphs, challenges of making art while living in an imperfect world

Profound and moving. Love most will not know 7 stars

Although the title indicates that the documentary is about the symphony, two more parallel stories were presented (the awards ceremony and the battle against cancer) focusing on how Jon Batiste reacted to all of this. In other words, what the film shows most are his anxieties and insecurities. For me, who didn't know him, I couldn't understand what was different about his work and why a documentary was made. Because it is only said that his work is considered good, it is not shown why.