Pittsburgh – STREAMING MOVIE NIGHT

2024 Netflix

Rated: PG-13

Length: 2 hr 7min

Drama

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Erykah Badu, Skylar Aleece Smith, Danielle Deadwyler, and Corey Hawkins.

“Ain’t nothin’ like a family heirloom to remind you where you come from and what you stand for.”

In 1936, just after the great depression, Boy Willie Charles (John David Washington) and Lymon Jackson (Ray Fisher) drive to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Marlin County Mississippi. They make the trip in Lymon’s truck full of watermelons they plan to sell in the city. They arrive at The Hill District where Boy Willie’s sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) lives with his Uncle Doaker (Samuel L. Jackson) and her young Daughter Maretha. Boy Willie explains to his uncle how he is going to sell the load of watermelons and then sell the piano sitting in the living room. Uncle Doaker quickly responds by informing him, “Berniece ain’t gonna sell that Piano.”

The Piano is a family heirloom that used to belong to their Slave-owner Sutter. Sutter had traded a mother/wife and child slave for the piano for his wife. He kept the husband, who was Berniece and Boy Willie’s Great Grandfather Willie Boy, because he was an excellent “Worker of Wood” and could make anything out of wood. Sutter made a lot of money off of everything Willie Boy made, so he was too valuable to trade off, and broke up Willie Boy’s family to get the piano for his wife. Over time Sutter’s wife comes to miss the slave woman and her daughter, Willie Boy’s wife and daughter, more than she likes the piano. Sutter attempts to trade backwards to get them back to no avail.

So instead he has Willie Boy carve their likeness into the piano to appease his wife. Willie Boy does that, but missing his wife and daughter, goes above and beyond and carves his entire family history into the piano. Years later Berniece and Boy Willie’s father Boy Charles stole the piano on July 4,1911 during the fireworks. And that’s how it ended up in Pittsburgh in Uncle Doaker’s living room. And now Boy Willie wants to lay claim to his half of the piano, so he can use the money to buy land that used to belong to the now deceased Sutter. Boy Willie wants to be a sharecropper that owns his own land, be his own man.

What follows is the struggle between Berniece and Boy Willie over selling the piano. Berniece refusing to let it go because of the history and blood that’s in that piano. Boy Willie seeing it as an opportunity to became the wealthy landowner instead of the slave that worked the land. There is a lot to this movie. It is a great story centered on a family heirloom piano, but it is much deeper than that. It is also the story of slavery and the struggles of keeping a family together as slaves under the ownership of a Plantation Owner. It is the story of Pittsburgh and The Hill District where many of the slaves that escaped from Mississippi came to and made their home.

Pittsburgh and the Hill District had a burgeoning Jazz scene from the 1920’s through the 1960’s. It was also referred to as “Little Harlem” back in it’s heyday. There were a lot of influential and famous Jazz Musicians to come out of Pittsburgh’s Jazz scene. Earl Hines, Art Blakely, Mary Lou Williams, James Blood Ulmer, Lena Horne and George Benson to name a few. There is a scene in the movie where Boy Willie and Lymon go out on the town to explore Pittsburgh’s Nightlife and enter a Jazz club. The jazz scene of that time is accurately depicted with Erykah Badu portraying a jazz singer and her band doing their thing.

The Piano Lesson is based on a play written by August Wilson, the fourth play in his 10 play collection The Pittsburgh Cycle. A work based on the history and influence of the many slaves that came there from the south and made it their home. It is directed by Malcolm Washington, the son of Denzel Washington, and makes his Directorial debut in this movie. Good job I say. It also stars Denzel Washington’s other son, John David Washington, who is a former St. Louis Rams Football Player turned Actor. He also starred in The Black Klansman, I thought he looked familiar and I really like him in that movie.

Samuel L. Jackson is great as always, I am a big fan and love all his work. His role in this movie is no exception, another great job. Danielle Deadwyler, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts and Skyler Aleece Smith were all excellent in this. It is a little slow at first but picks up steam as the argument over selling the piano heats up, and the ghosts of the past enter the story. Finally, a really good movie I enjoyed and can say absolutely worth a watch.

Highly Recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!

2023 Bleecker Street

Rated: PG-13

Length: 1 hr 27min

Comedy ~ Drama ~ Sci-Fi

Directed by: Marc Turtletaub

Starring: Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, Zoë Winters, Jade Quon, and Jane Curtin.

“A UFO has crashed in my backyard, and has taken out my Azaleas and has destroyed my birdbath.”

Ben Kingsley stars as Milton, a 78 year old widower living alone on the outskirts of Boonton, a small town in Southwest Pennsylvania. He has two adult children, a son and a daughter. His daughter Denise (Zoë Winters), a veterinarian, lives in town and drops by often to help her Dad with things. His son Tim lives out west in California. Milton and his son have been estranged for years and don’t speak to each other. Denise is worried about her father’s declining mental state and wants him to see a Dr. but he won’t hear of it. “I’m fine, Denise! I don’t need a Dr.!” Meanwhile he is putting canned vegetables upstairs in the medicine cabinet and newspapers in the freezer.

He spends his days tending to his flower garden and attending City hall meetings, where he complains to the city council about the town slogan, “I think we ought to change our town slogan. A Great Place To Call Home is confusing because when somebody hears it, it can mean it’s a great place to call your home on the telephone. I suggest a clearer motto like A Great Place To refer To As Home, although it doesn’t have to be that.” And the need for a crosswalk, “We need a crosswalk on Trent Ave. between Frost and Allegheny. It’s a very long distance to walk when you’re in the middle and you need to cross, and you either need to get to Frost or Allegheny. It encourages jaywalking, and jaywalking’s an expensive ticket. I know I’ve gotten three, not to mention, it’s a great way to get you killed. Thank you.”

One night Milton is awakened by a very loud noise in his backyard. he goes to investigate and discovers an alien spaceship has crash landed, taken out his Azaleas and wrecked his birdbath. He calls 911 but they tell him that making prank calls is a felony and he should probably just go back to sleep. The next day he tells the city council at the town meeting and they don’t believe him either. That evening he discovers that an Alien has crawled out of the spaceship and up to the back door. Milton gets him a glass of water and a blanket, and eventually invites the Alien into the house. He cooks it breakfast and discovers all it eats are apples. Milton stocks up on apples and nurses the alien back to health.

Milton’s two friends from The City hall meetings, Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtin), get nosy and discover that Milton was telling the truth about the UFO and the alien. They decide to call the alien Jules, and secretly protect him from everyone else while he repairs his spaceship. They discover, from drawings the alien gives them, that he needs seven cats to repair his spaceship. Jules found one, a roadkill with tire marks on his back, and they decide to help him find 6 more dead cats. They scour town and come up with 5 more, but still need one more. Knowing that time is running out before the Government agents come looking for Jules, they decide to expedite the process and Joyce offers up her old dying cat.

Jules is a sweet, sad, quirky, goofy, funny look at old people dealing with decline and normal lives interrupted by an Alien presence. Definitely a distraction from the daily routine of dealing with old age. Ben Kingsley is loveable as Milton, the old guy with the sweet heart. Jane Curtin is hilarious as the slightly grumpy Joyce and Harriet Sansom Harris is sweet as the old woman just trying to find her place.

I’ve seen it three times and it is a loveable sweet little film about aging, with an alien thrown into the mix to distract you from the fact that you are getting older.

That’s a yes for me. Three times and I’d watch it again.

Two Thumbs Up!