Review: They Shot the Piano Player — Movies for the Rest of Us with Bill Newcott

They Shot the Piano Player 

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Rating: PG-13

Run Time: 1 hour 43 minutes

Stars: Jeff Goldblum, Tony Ramos, Abel Ayala

Writer: Fernando Trueba

Directors: Javier Mariscal, Fernando Trueba

Reviewed at the Toronto International Film Festival

“Animated Documentary” may sound like a contradictory term, but sometimes the most profound way to tell a true story is to draw it (Walt Disney famously proved that when his 1942 cartoon doc, Victory Through Air Power, helped change the Allies’ global World War II strategy).

In this vibrantly drawn, bossa nova-infused investigative film, Oscar-nominated directors Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba (Chico & Rita) explore the still-unsolved 1976 abduction and murder of legendary Rio de Janeiro jazz pianist Francisco Tenório. Venturing down dark streets and reveling in nightclubs exploding in color and music, the directors recreate the vibrant essence of 1970s South America at the moment when the continent’s totalitarians were on the verge of ruining everything.

Just as animation is an approximation of life, this most unusual documentary presents its real-life story within a fictional framework. Mariscal and Trueba have created a make-believe narrator, a New York music writer named Jeff Harris (colorfully voiced by Jeff Goldblum), who we first meet hosting a 2009 reading at the city’s famed Strand Bookstore. Promoting his new book, which happens to have the same name as the film, he relates the story of how he became intrigued with the music of Tenório, who as far as he could tell dropped off the face of the Earth just as he was emerging on the Brazilian music scene.

Flying to South America, Harris tracks down former acquaintances of Tenório, including friends, fellow musicians, his widow, and an ex-lover. This is where the film shifts into documentary mode: The interviews are real; the visuals are animated, shifting from cartoon versions of the speakers to wildly imaginative images of 1970s South American culture.

Their recollections of Tenório’s last days vary in detail, but follow a common general narrative: Late one night during a 1976 visit to Buenos Aires, the musician stepped out of his hotel for a trip to a corner store — and was never seen again. The film takes pains to unfold the possible reasons behind Tenório’s disappearance, but the overwhelmingly most likely one is pretty clear from the start: The musician was mistakenly abducted by the dictatorship’s secret police, thrown into a hellish prison, and ultimately executed.

The choice of animation as the medium for telling this somber story is an inspired one: For one thing, we’re spared a lot of grainy ’70s footage. Plus, Tenório’s old friends and lovers, now well into their 80s, are afforded an almost mythic, immortal quality. Best of all, with a killer playlist of 1970s bossa nova classics, the musical interludes fairly leap from the screen, an undulating riot of fiery reds, blazing yellows, and inky blues.

Goldblum, who these days generally plays various versions of himself, seems to understand the need to infuse his character with a youthful lilt, offering an emotional vocal range beyond his accustomed monotone.

At its heart, They Shot the Piano Player is a meditation on the ways a seemingly stable culture can, by degrees, decay to the point where it is unrecognizable from its fairly recent self. As such, it serves as both a nostalgic memoir and a harsh cautionary tale.

If they’ll shoot the piano player, after all, they’ll shoot just about anybody.