Not being terribly steeped in my "American Roots" I was wondering just who Jon Batiste actually was and whether, Aaron Copland-style, we were going to get a modern day illustration of a man writing an art-form that would seem to have long gone out of fashion for the mainstream audiences to whom his Grammy-nominated music appealed. Sadly, not. What we get here is rather muddled documentary that tries to show us a little of the real man, of his wife Suleika - who is undergoing some pretty torrid treatment for leukaemia - all whilst we watch him write, have rather pained sessions with his shrink - "this is the train you are on!" but actually we see precious little of just how the man functions as a musician. As a creator of what he hopes will be a modern orchestral masterpiece to be showcased at a full Carnegie Hall, we just don't get anything like close enough to what makes him tick, what inspires his creativity. Clearly lockdown didn't help - nor are face masks great for microphones capturing dialogue - but the whole thing is a sprawl of a film that actually left me feeling that Batiste was a man who vacillated from the earnest to the entertaining as if it were a switch that was being turned on. Some of the hospital scenes were just downright intrusive - I felt distinctly uncomfortable being a fly on the wall for some of the consultations! I fear the technical simplicity of creating these sort of access all areas, fly-on-the-wall, documentaries is going to lead to many more of them in the coming years, but if they are to work they really do need a strong, independent, director who can construct a narrative that informs the audience, not just showcases the personality of star. It's worth a watch, I suppose, but there's not too much symphonic going on.
