It’s a largely self-congratulatory documentary, this. Maybe I’m less invested in the subject than a lot of the audience - I am vaguely aware of Batiste through the bandleader days on Colbert, but I’ve not really listened to his music and I’m not particularly bought in.
What doesn’t help is that this ticks off, quite early in the film actually, a real bugbear of mine, which is revealing Batiste to be one of those composers who relies heavily on orchestrators to do the real work. I’m not saying it’s cheating, but it’s being “the ideas guy”.
It’s also hard to avoid the optics of Batiste flying around the world and devoting himself to his first symphony when his wife is, y’know, going through chemotherapy. It’s certainly a look. Maybe it’s fine in a vacuum, but it’s hard to say it endears me to him.
That said, it is somewhat endearing to see him (admittedly knowing the cameras are on) being very gracious towards any and everyone who comes up to congratulate him after the Grammy awards, even knackered in an airport.
The grand finale is obviously the premiere of his symphony, which - looking at contemporary accounts - seems to have been relatively well reviewed. But it hasn’t particularly left a cultural impact to warrant this.