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The Piano Lesson

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Rohan Naahar

The Piano Lesson
Rohan Naahar
The Indian Express
Near-perfect Netflix drama finds John David Washington in incendiary form

Starring John David Washington and directed by his brother, Malcolm, the new Netflix movie is a tightly-wound drama about sibling bonds, inherited trauma, and the horrors of the past.

It is easy, one would imagine, for a filmmaker to be overwhelmed by the words of the great August Wilson. Especially if they’ve never made a film before. Musical and marauding, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright’s language is a vessel for the ambition and anger of his people. Netflix’s The Piano Lesson — the latest adaptation of Wilson’s celebrated Pittsburgh Cycle of plays — is directed by the debutante Malcolm Washington, whose father, the legendary Denzel Washington, has publicly devoted this stage of his career to shepherding Wilson’s work onto the screen.

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