The Piano Lesson

A family heirloom—a beautifully carved piano—serves as the somber center of this riveting drama, adapted from the classic by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. Boy Willie (John David Washington), a proud young farmer, wants to sell the piano to fulfill his murdered father’s desire to own his own land. His sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler), a young widow, insists on keeping it as the loved-hated emblem of her sense of loss and struggle. Wilson’s work features scalding family disputes, folklore and spiritual elements and, haunting everything, the legacy of white racist violence inflicted on Black Americans. Writer-director Malcolm Washington and co-writer Virgil Williams transform his work to the screen with uncanny skill and insight, elegance and compassion. The superb Washington and Deadwyler are matched by a glorious ensemble of family members and friends including Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Potts, Ray Fisher and Corey Hawkins, with a cameo from Erykah Badu. (Telluride Film Festival)