Halfway through his life, celebrated pianist and composer Seymour Bernstein retired from touring and performing live to instead focus on teaching. In the documentary Seymour: An Introduction, a title lifted from a short story by J. D. Salinger, Ethan Hawke trains his camera on Bernstein, positioning him as an aspirational symbol of how to navigate a midlife crisis and reconcile one's artistic pursuit and personal life. It is a persuasive argument. Bernstein is a genuine character: transfixing at the piano and, in conversation, a vast source of almost guru-style wisdom, always delivered with urbane elegance and a bit of humor. In regard to structure, the film is rather soft and free-floating—a memory here (perhaps of the Korean War), a montage of instrumental instruction there—and it is, of course, completely uncritical of its subject and his viewpoints, but the gentle ride is entirely engaging and thoughtful, and it is buoyed by fantastic musical selections, including pieces by Beethoven and Schumann. Hawke's warm idolization of Bernstein both as an artist and as a man ultimately feels inevitable and justified.

B+