May 13--15:
Tues-Thurs 5:50 8:10
(This movie continues May 16--22: Fri & Sat 4:20 7:00 9:10, Sun 3:20 6:00 8:10, Mon-Thurs 6:00 8:10 )

(U.S. 2008 dir by Thomas McCarthy)
The trifecta of music, friendship, and love saves an emotionally shut-down widowed economics professor from sleepwalking through the rest of his life.

In actor and filmmaker Tom McCarthy’s poignant, occasionally humorous follow-up to his award winning directorial debut THE STATION AGENT, Walter Vale (veteran supporting actor Richard Jenkins), reluctantly attends an economics conference in NYC. When he enters his musty pied-a-terre, he discovers a young couple squatting in his pad. The interlopers are Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a young Syrian man, and Zainab (Danai Gurira), his Senegalese girlfriend. Victims of a real estate scam, they have nowhere else to go. Walter reluctantly allows the couple to stay with him. Touched by his kindness, Tarek, a talented musician, insists on teaching Walter how to play the djembe, an African drum. The instrument’s exuberant rhythms revitalize Walter’s faltering spirit. As the friendship between the two men deepens, the differences in culture, age and temperament melt away. The film celebrates the deep human connections that can be forged despite racial, cultural, and religious differences as the professor learns that joy is an option.  PG-13. 103 mins.

May 13--15:
Tues-Thurs 6:00 8:15
(This movie continues May 16--22: Fri & Sat 4:30 6:50, Sun 6:10 8:20, Mon 6:10, Tues-Thurs 6:10 8:20)

(US 2008 dir by Stephen Walker)
Since the early 1980s, Young@Heart, a New England senior citizens chorus has been entertaining and delighting audiences worldwide with its unique renditions of punk, rock, and rhythm-and-blues songs by musicians as disparate as the Clash, Coldplay, and James Brown.

With a new show titled "Alive and Well" rapidly approaching, Young@Heart's tough musical director Bob Cilman has six new songs for his performing elders, from Sonic Youth's discordant "Schizophrenia" to Allen Toussaint's tongue-twisting "Yes, We Can Can." 

This is no mere novelty act for its members. Young@Heart is at once a serious musical undertaking, a supportive community, and a way to stay active and engaged. The group's eclectic and entertaining repertoire shines a spotlight on taboos and ironies of old age— James Brown’s “I Feel Good”, the Clash's "Should I Stay, or Should I Go?" becomes an amusing meditation on life and death, while Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" serves as a haunting ode to lost youth and fallen friends. Funny and unexpectedly moving - a testament to friendship, creative inspiration, and reaching beyond expectations.  PG. 110 mins.

Lisa Schwarzbaum's EW pick, 4/18/08: "Surprisingly Profound."