A family clash over an heirloom piano explodes. The battle between brother (John David Washington) and sister (Danielle Deadwyler) — one hopes to sell it, the other refuses to give it up — unleashes haunting truths about how the past is perceived and who defines a family legacy.

film comes out tomorrow so i felt like a thread was needed.

Trailer is great, surprised the Oscars buzz has flamed out a bit even with the good reviews

watching this and blitz sometime this weekend

could see danielle deadwyler getting a nom but yea not sure how it will do

Can’t wait for this

Trailer looks solid

Samuel L Jackson back having a big role a movie

Same cinematographer as Under the Silver Lake, Us, Split

Same editor as Punch Drunk Love, The Master, Inherent Vice

Alexandre Desplat score

John David Washington in general

Danielle Deadwyler in general

Directed by Denzel Washington’s son and starring his other son. What a talented family, I’ve been looking forward for this one

also wanted to note this is based on the stage play by August Wilson that has had many iterations through the years. Most recently John David Washington had his broadway debut doing this play. so safe to say he is familiar with this material. Samuel Jackson was in it as well.

Denzel Washington's Fences was also an August Wilson adaptation and Denzel did the play on broadway first before directing and starring in the film with Viola Davis

Speaking of Viola Davis, this will be Netflix's SECOND August Wilson adaptation because the first was Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in 2020 starring Viola Davis and was also featured Chadwick Boseman's final on-screen performance. just interesting connections here.

Excited for this movie. I read the book adaption of the screenplay in middle school and loved it. My parents saw the play back in the 90s. They still rave about it to this day. The movie should be really good.

good to hear!

I expect to enjoy this as well considering I liked Fences and Ma Rainey

Appreciate you posting this. That is some interesting connections. Denzel must be a big fan of that playwright

I really do hope people actually go see it though. Been seeing on Twitter people tryna call this a "slave" or "Black trauma" movie and it's so disappointing to see. It's so much more to it than "enslavement" and "Black trauma". Very powerful story about family, Black American spirituality, the power we get from our history, and in its most simplest message of how we our ancestors were much more than just slaves.

Reducing it to a "slave movie" is just so counterproductive to what it's actually about smh

yea I'll go out on a limb here and say that his connection to August Wilson is probably 95% of the reason his sons are attached to this as well. Just looked it up and Denzel produced Ma Rainey as well so considering Denzel's emphasis to the younger generation of actors on doing stage work, I think he sees the theatre as a starting point before doing other work.

I'm most curious about Malcolm Washington's vision with this. he's only ever really worked on sets as an assistant (for spike lee, shout out nepotism) . he did direct a short film back in 2017 but I haven't seen it

for reference:

x.com/JoshuaOgundu/status/1858887234155671745

I know exactly what tweet you're referring to and I think you're right on the money with it.

I've been kind of at a crossroads with this sort of argument. I see both sides. I think there is such a small amount of black films released within a year that to a person who only really taps in with the major films feel like there isn't a big enough variety when it comes to black expression. I think films like these are important but I also think having a wide variety of films featuring black people is important too.

Honestly I think these days we've had a ton of variety in regards to Black shows and movies with Black people simply being Black people in many different genres.

Flatbush Misdemeanors
Invincible Fight Girl
Cross
Scavengers Reign
Rap S***
South Side
BMF
On the Count of Three
Abbott Elementary
The Chi
Queen Sugar
American Fiction
Black Lightning
Book of Clarence
They Cloned Tyrone
Bel-Air
Greenleaf
Harlem
All-American: Homecoming
The Blackening

Plenty stuff ranging from animated, horror, sci-fi, comedy, teen drama, action, crime, melodrama, etc. that feature an entirely or predominantly Black cast or Black main character(s). Some of the shows mentioned even lasted 3-4 seasons. I just think that we're at a point where we have so much variety that it's kinda lazy to keep using the "slave movie" or "Black trauma" narrative.

for sure and i've been attempting to keep track of films directed by black directors this year and looking back at the list, there's def some variety there.

boxd.it/sNhzS

I think i'm still in pursuit of this white whale of a film that fits into this perfect aesthetic that I have in my head that I haven't yet seen from many modern day black filmmakers outside of maybe Barry Jenkins... anyways. this is a great list of films and tv you have here and i've seen and appreciated quite a bit of these.

I heard Sam’s more so in the background

Really liked Fences and Black Bottom so hoping this will be just as good!

Plays turned into dialogue heavy films will always be my s***, prolly why I like Tarantino so much because he emulates that style in an entertaining way

Oh wtf! IMDb wiki and the poster has him top billing. I guess that’s some legacy act Hollywood legend legality where he has it in his deals to be the top bill or something e

FYI I’m going off an article I read on world of reel in which he was reporting on reviews it was getting, so we’ll see

I’m hoping he gets a good amount of screen time. Sam + a lot of dialogue will always be a recipe for success. One of the reasons why Hateful 8 dialogue is so good.

Nah I think you’re right. I was looking through the Oscars Reddit and threads about him in this say has very little showtime. But he also apparently is funny and steals scenes so we may be eating still

out now

“Come on Pops it’s just $10 ima get it right back to you next week”

“Now boy I done told you I ain’t gots $10 so stop asking”

did you watch His Three Daughters?