Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER [AFI Fest 2023 - Los Angeles, California - Remote]

The essence of a mystery bathed in a documentary depends on the level of intrigue that permeates and a sense of engagement. In "They Shot The Piano Player", the use of animation based around a rabbit hole journalist Jeff Harris found while writing a book for the New Yorker on Bossa Nova is intriguing but dense in many ways. It wants to integrate a sense of context between narrative structure created by narrator of Jeff Goldblum as Harris and the mystery of what happened to a piano virtuouso in Argentina during a time of strife. However despite some interesting musical interludes, the energy comes off a bit muted. The directors try to use the journalist's life as a framing mechanism of who he talked to and how the onion is peeled in many ways. There however is never any sense of dread or real loss, despite its intention. That might have to do with connectivity. There are remembrances of Tenerio, the piano player. Some moments of nostalgia as his kids recount the lives they remember when they were young before their father disappeared do have a wistfulness.

The animation also tries its best under limited circumstances. A movie that comes to mind that had the same slow burn is "Sundown" with Tim Roth which was set in Brazil but that showed a sense of darkness and existentialism as it reached its crescendo. While the story of Tenerio might not be so dramatic narratively, we never get a sense of what he knew or didn't know (from his family or friends). He just seemed to be a casuality of a time in Argentina when the political strife took over and people disappeared...and a great talent was lost before his time. The film does a good job of explaining this at one point. All the interviews with luminaries of the bossa nova scene are integrated but it isn't clear if this is from Harris' original interviews or if some of the people were re-recorded (although some might have since passed). Goldblum as the voice of Harris is effective but almost too much himself (even in audio) because it inflects something into Harris that might not have been there. The eventual take away is that like anything, Tenerio's is a story that is lost in time but Harris connected to this man's journey, as we sometimes do, and made sure it made its way back into the NY scene and eventually this film. B

By Tim Wassberg