"The Piano Lesson is the feature film debut of director Malcolm Washington (son of Denzel Washington and brother of John David Washington), adapting the eponymous work by August Wilson. The story, a drama with gothic elements, is set in Pittsburgh, 1936, and follows two brothers who dispute their family legacy: a wooden-carved piano that documents the life of an ancestor in slavery. With excellent performances from actors like Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Fisher, Danielle Deadwyler, and John David Washington himself, the film sometimes unfolds in a very theatrical manner, but it successfully uses its gothic spirit to convey deep and important ideas about generational trauma, slavery in the United States, and the hope to transcend that anger and break cycles of violence."