Young@Heart

BY MICHAEL SMITH World Scene Writer
Friday, May 23, 2008
5/23/08 at 3:04 AM

Their bones ache and their joints are swollen, but they can still shake their groove things.

The members of the Young@Heart chorus, average age of 80, are living proof that while their singers might only have a limited time remaining on this Earth, rock 'n' roll will never die, and they're going to live it up.

The permanent-smile-inducing documentary "Young@Heart" presents the group of Northampton, Mass., residents who have come up with a unique and marketable concept that's allowed them to tour the country and abroad, showing that they're ready to rock more than a chair.

The irony is immediate in the song choices, watching as men attached to oxygen tanks and women bent into the shape of question marks bellow out James Brown's "I Feel Good" (some do, some don't) or "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by the Clash.

During the seven weeks that the group prepares new songs for an upcoming hometown concert, not all of them stay.

The film's premise sounds so sweet, and it delivers on that charm often, but documentarian Stephen Walker captures the reality of the situation — this is a music group whose members leave because of death, not creative differences — for a cathartic picture that is at turns joyous and heartbreaking.

The interviews with the choir members are superb, all glib statements by senior citizens with nothing to sugar-coat. Their rehearsal hall scenes are a hoot, watching their blank stares at hearing a new song suggestion like Sonic Youth's "Schizophrenia" ("We've never heard a lot of these songs, except to tell our kids to turn them off," one member says half-jokingly).

The director finds the right balance in documenting music director Bob Cilman, showing him in his roles as both a taskmaster who rides herd on the sometimes rowdy members and as a loving partner in this project. He's 30 years their junior and must often feel as though he loses someone who might best be described as motherly or like a second father.

The comedy is heightened when Walker showcases some of the group's longtime favorites, giving members the opportunity to be music video stars. Imagine 20 people lined up in wheelchairs, from which they rather violently bob forward in hollering out the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated," or a hilarious "Stayin' Alive," the Bee Gees hit that gets stepped out by a man in orthopedic shoes.

It's one of many moments in which viewers will be chuckling at the antics of these octagenarians. And then you're near tears again.

When the group gathers at a nearby prison to perform for inmates, telling of the death that morning of a longtime performer and then delivering an ensemble effort of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young," the mood is solemn and overwhelming in its power when the camera studies these imprisoned men.

Initially amused at the idea of this concert, the inmates are by this closing song no longer merely tough guys surviving incarceration. You can see in their faces that they are considering these seniors' spirit and their zest for life, and they are considering the lyrics, and it's obvious that these men are missing their own grandmothers, wondering how they will spend the rest of their days, and rethinking the errors of their ways.

That's the power of music, and that's the power of "Young@Heart." I could see the group opening for the Rolling Stones as an age-appropriate tour partner, on the condition that the grandmothers stay away from that all-hands Mick Jagger.

Young@Heart

Stars:
Bob Cilman, Dora Morrow

Theater:
Circle Cinema, 10 S. Lewis Ave. (592-3456 for show times)

Running time:
1 hour, 47 minutes

Rated:
PG (mild language, thematic elements)

Quality:
***(on a scale of zero to four stars)

Michael Smith 581-8479
michael.smith@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

The Young@Heart chorus, composed of senior citizens from Massachusetts, has performed in front of audiences worldwide with its covers of songs by everyone from The Clash to Coldplay.

Chorus director Bob Cilman (left) works with Dora Morrow and Stan Goldman to fine-tune the chorus version of the James Brown classic, “I Feel Good.” Morrow has the “Owwwww” part.