Blue Giant (2023)

A jazz trio built from scratch, and the best animated band movie going. Dai arrives in Tokyo from a small town after only four years on the saxophone, talks a classically trained piano prodigy into starting a band with him, and recruits a friend from home as a complete novice on drums, so the film is as much about learning to play together as about chasing a big stage. Yuzuru Tachikawa adapts Shinichi Ishizuka's manga, and the music, composed by the jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara, is the star: the performance scenes come close to the thrill of a live set. The story follows familiar sports-movie beats, but for anyone who has ever practiced until their hands hurt, it lands.