Friday 24 May
 
 

The Burning

It speaks to the strength of The Burning’s reputation among cult-film fans that what’s most memorable about the 1981 slasher is not that it was written by the Weinstein brothers, nor that it represents early appearances of the likes of Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter and Fisher Stevens. It’s that its Cropsy is just a damned good villain.
05/24/2013 | Comments 0

Dexter: The Seventh Season

There's no way to discuss the seventh and penultimate season of Showtime's hit Dexter without acknowledging how the previous year ended. Therefore, if you haven't finished the sixth season, stop reading now. You've got work to do.
05/21/2013 | Comments 0

Nightfall

As Simon Lam gets older, he gets better. The veteran actor has appeared in such in seminal HK action films of the 1990s as Once Upon a Time in China (opposite Jet Li) and Bullet in the Head (directed by John Woo); in the aughts, he graced audience and critical favorites Election and Ip Man.
05/20/2013 | Comments 0

Grand Duel

Lee Van Cleef enjoyed a secondary career in Italy cranking out spaghetti Westerns, with little regard to quality. However, 1972’s Grand Duel — aka The Big Showdown — is deserving of its Grand label. No wonder Quentin Tarantino borrowed its sweeping theme song by Luis Bacalov for Kill Bill; you'll recognize it in two notes.
05/20/2013 | Comments 0

The Last Stand

Early in The Last Stand, the small-town sheriff played by Arnold Schwarzenegger says, "It's my day off. Should be a quiet weekend." That's the new way of saying, "I've got one week to retirement," because it signals — with flashing neon and everything — that life is going to royally upend those plans.
05/17/2013 | Comments 0
Home · Articles · Movies · Documentary · Young@Heart
Documentary

Young@Heart


None May 24th, 2008

young@heart

Reviewer's grade: A-

 

Young@Heart is the name of a New England chorus in which the median age is 80, but don't expect to hear "Sweet Adeline." These oldsters are renowned for performances of rock, punk and soul. While the idea of octogenarians crooning Ramones tunes has serious kitsch potential, "Young@Heart" is hardly gimmicky.

 

Documentarian Stephen Walker follows seven weeks of rehearsals during which the chorus learns new songs (Sonic Youth's "Schizophrenia" is especially tricky) and weathers the deaths of some beloved members. The emerging tale is a sweetly rendered, surprisingly unsentimental film about how a group of seniors has transcended the infirmities of age. The inexorable spell of "Young@Heart" is encapsulated when the chorus performs at a jail.

 

At first the inmates chortle at what appears to be a novelty act, but smirks are long gone by the time the chorus concludes with an elegiac version of "Forever Young." The expressions of the inmates belie a newfound understanding and admiration for these extraordinary folks. PG

 

"”Phil Bacharach

 

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