Telluride: ‘The Piano Lesson’ wins raves for Danielle Deadwyler

The buzz heading into the world premiere of “The Piano Lesson” at the Telluride Film Festival suggested that star Danielle Deadwyler will be a serious Oscar threat at next year’s ceremony, with the actress leading in the supporting category in the Gold Derby odds at this early stage of the season. Now that the Malcolm Washington film has screened, expect her front-runner speculation to continue for Deadwyler, who is given several standout moments in the Netflix drama.

Based on the August Wilson play of the same name and co-written by Washington and Virgil Williams, “The Piano Lesson” is largely set in 1936 – although the drama’s inciting incident occurred in 1911. The film focuses on “the lives of the Charles family in the Doaker Charles (Jackson) household and an heirloom, the family piano, which documents the family history through carvings made by their enslaved ancestor.” Washington’s brother, John David Washington, stars as Boy Willie, whose reemergence in his sister Berniece’s (Deadwyler) life causes the ghosts of the past to return – sometimes literally. 

“Our first mandate was to honor and uphold the legacy of August Wilson; imbue his spirit into the work. I tried to open myself up to him and learn as much as I could. I read about his close relationship with his mother, that he grew up behind Bella’s Market — a small storefront that we honor in our film. I traveled to his neighborhood, Pittsburgh’s historic Hill District and walked the streets he grew up on, spoke to his family, all while digging deeper and deeper into his masterwork. I became a student of August Wilson but along the way a curious thing started to happen; the more I learned about August, the more I saw myself in his story and in his work,” Malcolm Washington said in his director’s statement. “Boy Willie’s plight felt like much of my own, while I shared Berniece’s sensibilities and understanding of the gravity of legacy. That like Berniece and Boy Willie, part of my purpose is to honor the lives and legacies of my parents and our ancestors. That I too come from a long line of women and men, some born into, then liberated from chattel slavery and that my life is possible because of the decisions, sacrifices and actions of all of them; that it’s paramount for me to do something meaningful with it. That, in the words of Boy Willie, ‘I’m supposed to build on what they left me.’ This was the guiding light for my work on this film, my buoy in the sea.”

“Danielle Deadwyler is nothing short of phenomenal. Commanding every scene she’s in with an entrancing presence, she inhabits decades of pain & responsibility in a performance we’ll be talking about the rest of the year,” wrote Next Best Picture editor-in-chief Matt Neglia on social media. 

“Malcolm Washington’s ‘The Piano Lesson’ is a powerful family tale packed with strong performances, especially by the forceful John David Washington and the phenomenal Danielle Deadwyler. They’d both be on my ballot for sure,” added TCM host Dave Karger.

Deadwyler, who was snubbed two years ago by the academy for her lead performance in “Till,” drew most of the social media praise from the cast. But the film’s entire ensemble is strong, particularly fellow supporting front-runner Samuel L. Jackson, who has never won a competitive Oscar and hasn’t been nominated since his first nomination in 1995 for “Pulp Fiction.” Jackson has at least two standout moments – including a group performance of a work song the male characters used to sing. 

“When you watch that on stage, it’s so powerful,” Malcolm Washington said of the scene in an interview with Vanity Fair. “There’s kind of this choreography that comes in. The whole audience is so into it…. “I tried to make it more intimate, get really into the interior moments of each of them. No choreography, we’re just going to be with them and their pain and their struggle. And where they got that night, that was one of the magical nights on set.”

That magic Malcolm Washington described extended to the Telluride audience, which erupted in applause when the scene ended. 

Deadwyler, Jackson, and John David Washington are also joined in the film by Ray Fisher (a revelatory standout), Stephan James, and Michael Potts. (Jackson. Fisher, Potts, and John David Washington starred together on Broadway in the 2022 revival, where Jackson was a Tony Award nominee.)

Behind the camera, Malcolm Washington – who is making his feature debut with “The Piano Lesson” – enlisted some other top talent, including composer and Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat, cinematographer Michael Gioulakis (“Us,” “Old,” and “Under the Silver Lake”), Oscar-nominated editor Leslie Jones (“The Thin Red Line”), and production designer David J. Bomba (“Mudbound”). 

Netflix has high hopes for “The Piano Lesson” among its slate of awards titles, and the film was given the prime release date of November 22 on the streaming service (a limited theatrical release comes on November 8). If Deadwyler and Jackson end up winning their respective categories as is predicted now in the odds, they’ll join a select company as two supporting winners from the same film. 

If the film gets in for Best Picture, Malcolm and John David’s father, Denzel Washington, will also find himself as an Oscar nominee as one of the film’s producers. The two-time acting winner is also in contention for his screen work this year for “Gladiator II.”