I just saw this film at the opening night of the Philadelphia Film Festival. It's excellent.
This is a documentary about a group of 75-95 year old seniors in a choir called Young @ Heart and we follow them as they rehearse for an upcoming concert. This group has been together for more than 20 years albeit with different people at different times and the unusual thing is their choice of songs. They sing hard rock and roll, R & B, and Punk along with contemporary songs. It is quite interesting to hear The Ramones I Wanna Be Sedated coming from senior citizens. It gives the song a whole new meaning.
Face it; these guys are "Punk" in every way (Thank you Jim Emerson). One of the major attributes of Punk was the intention that anyone could be a rock and roll singer. You didn't need any training or experience, you just needed something to say and the guts to stand up and sing it.
There was a moment near the beginning when I thought the film would turn very twee and just be a sentimental rubbish piece about cute old farts who sing hip songs, but there is something about the actual old folks themselves that belies that stereotype. They are feisty folks, but have no illusions about getting old or their impending mortality. In fact, two people we get to know well die before the big concert and one absolutely lovely old lady is remembered in the credits having died sometime between the editing of the film and its release.
I suppose its inevitable, spend two years with any group of 80 year olds and it is likely that some will die within the next two years. We see the group rehearsing some songs, one of which will be a duet, but the song is turned into a solo after the death of one of the group members who had been fighting ill health for a while.
We actually hear from one of the soon to be deceased as he gets a blood transfusion to help his dangerously low white cell count. He faces us squarely and talks about death and how he is still going to go on singing and that he isn't scared, but then he looks at the camera and says "Did I convince you?' Clearly meaning that he was trying to convince himself. Still I hope I have the kind of sanguine wisdom at my death.
The moment when one of the men sings Coldplay's Fix You as a tribute to their dead colleagues is a heart breaker. But they also have several music video type segments (that are wonderful to such diverse hit songs as The Bee Gee's Stayin Alive, Talking Heads' Road To Nowhere and David Bowie's Golden Years.
The director is a preternaturally cheerful Brit who at first seems quite annoying, but as the film goes on, he lightens up on the extraneous commentary and he never inserts himself into the scenes the way someone like Michael Moore or Nick Broomfield would. I found that made the film more enjoyable although I love the films of Broomfield and Moore. Consider, all cameras and crew interfere with the naturalness of the subject in a documentary, but given a choice, most people prefer the fiction that the filmmakers are not present and are not altering the reality in subtle ways and become affronted when he is visually present.
I think Director Stephen Walker's presence (almost entirely vocal) actually helped get the participants to open up to him. Well done film that will make think differently about aging, as well as the lyrics of The Clash and James Brown. This was one of the most audience friendly films I've seen in a long time that also manages to be compelling and poignant without being overly sentimental.
April 4, 2008
This is a documentary about a group of 75-95 year old seniors in a choir called Young @ Heart and we follow them as they rehearse for an upcoming concert. This group has been together for more than 20 years albeit with different people at different times and the unusual thing is their choice of songs. They sing hard rock and roll, R & B, and Punk along with contemporary songs. It is quite interesting to hear The Ramones I Wanna Be Sedated coming from senior citizens. It gives the song a whole new meaning.
Face it; these guys are "Punk" in every way (Thank you Jim Emerson). One of the major attributes of Punk was the intention that anyone could be a rock and roll singer. You didn't need any training or experience, you just needed something to say and the guts to stand up and sing it.
There was a moment near the beginning when I thought the film would turn very twee and just be a sentimental rubbish piece about cute old farts who sing hip songs, but there is something about the actual old folks themselves that belies that stereotype. They are feisty folks, but have no illusions about getting old or their impending mortality. In fact, two people we get to know well die before the big concert and one absolutely lovely old lady is remembered in the credits having died sometime between the editing of the film and its release.
I suppose its inevitable, spend two years with any group of 80 year olds and it is likely that some will die within the next two years. We see the group rehearsing some songs, one of which will be a duet, but the song is turned into a solo after the death of one of the group members who had been fighting ill health for a while.
We actually hear from one of the soon to be deceased as he gets a blood transfusion to help his dangerously low white cell count. He faces us squarely and talks about death and how he is still going to go on singing and that he isn't scared, but then he looks at the camera and says "Did I convince you?' Clearly meaning that he was trying to convince himself. Still I hope I have the kind of sanguine wisdom at my death.
The moment when one of the men sings Coldplay's Fix You as a tribute to their dead colleagues is a heart breaker. But they also have several music video type segments (that are wonderful to such diverse hit songs as The Bee Gee's Stayin Alive, Talking Heads' Road To Nowhere and David Bowie's Golden Years.
The director is a preternaturally cheerful Brit who at first seems quite annoying, but as the film goes on, he lightens up on the extraneous commentary and he never inserts himself into the scenes the way someone like Michael Moore or Nick Broomfield would. I found that made the film more enjoyable although I love the films of Broomfield and Moore. Consider, all cameras and crew interfere with the naturalness of the subject in a documentary, but given a choice, most people prefer the fiction that the filmmakers are not present and are not altering the reality in subtle ways and become affronted when he is visually present.
I think Director Stephen Walker's presence (almost entirely vocal) actually helped get the participants to open up to him. Well done film that will make think differently about aging, as well as the lyrics of The Clash and James Brown. This was one of the most audience friendly films I've seen in a long time that also manages to be compelling and poignant without being overly sentimental.
April 4, 2008