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IMDB RANK = 6.3/10
Description
Popular high school senior Mike O'Donnell (Zac Efron) seemingly has it all. He is a star athlete headed straight for a college scholarship when he decides to give it up to settle down with his high school girlfriend Scarlet is pregnant.
Twenty years later, an adult Mike (played by Matthew Perry) finds his life is not exactly what he expected. He is separated from his wife, Scarlett (Leslie Mann) and living with his wealthy software genius nerd and best friend Ned Freedman (Thomas Lennon), his career at a pharmaceutical company is at a stand still, and his relationships with his teenage children are nonexistent. After getting passed up for yet another promotion at work, he returns to his high school to reminisce over his basketball awards and the life he could have had. While he is reliving his glory days, he is approached by a janitor and shares with him how things were so much better when he was 17.
As Mike is driving home from the high school, he sees the mysterious janitor standing on the ledge preparing to jump into the Los Angeles River. Mike rushes out of his car to rescue him, but when he gets there, the janitor has vanished. What Mike doesn't realize is that he is about to fall into the river and turn into his 17 year old self.
Young Mike (Zac Efron) returns to Ned's house, where he has the difficult task of convincing Ned that he is in fact Mike. At a loss of what to do, Ned pretends to be Mike's father and they register Mike back in high school to finish the life he never had the chance to live.
High school presents a lot of new challenges for Mike, such as dressing cool, keeping up with the latest gadgets and making new friends. But nothing compares to being in high school with his own children. He discovers that his daughter, Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg), is not nearly as innocent as he thought she was and his son, Alex (Sterling Knight), is the brunt of the star athlete's jokes.
But Mike's most difficult realization is that he hasn't been a very good father or husband. Mike befriends Alex and tries to instill him with enough confidence to join the basketball team. He gets close to Maggie's obnoxious boyfriend and does everything in his power to break them up. Most importantly, he visits an unsuspecting Scarlet and rediscovers all the things that initially made him fall in love with her. You don't know what you have until you lose it.
Through his experiences, Mike realizes that he had chosen the perfect life he just never appreciated it. Now, he must figure out a way to transform back into his older self and win back his wife and kids.
IMDB RANK = 8.1/10
Description
Filmmaker Kate Churchill is determined to prove that yoga can transform anyone. Nick Rosen is skeptical but agrees to be her guinea pig. Kate immerses Nick in yoga, and follows him around the world as he examines the good, the bad and the ugly of yoga. The two encounter celebrity yogis, true believers, kooks and world-renowned gurus. Tensions run high as Nick's transformational progress lags and Kate's plan crumbles. Ultimately, what they find is not what they expected.
IMDB RANK = 7.8/10
Description
"Set in 1980s seaside England, this is the story of Edward, an unusual ten year old boy growing up in an old people's home run by his parents. Whilst his mother struggles to keep the family business afloat, and his father copes with the onset of mid-life crisis, Edward is busy tape-recording the elderly residents to try and discover what happens when they die. Increasingly obsessed with ghosts and the afterlife, Edward's is a rather lonely existence until he meets Clarence, the latest recruit to the home, a retired magician with a liberating streak of anarchy. Is There Anybody There? tells the surprising, touching story of this odd couple - a boy and an old man - facing life together, with Edward learning to live in the moment and Clarence coming to terms with the past."
IMDB RANK = 4.5/10
Description
"A Chorus Line," as most everybody knows, is about auditions. "Every Little Step" is a documentary about auditioning for "A Chorus Line" (which is about auditions, see?).
Too clever by half? No, too too good - an absolutely terrific film, which combines Broadway history, closeups of generations of artists, the suspense of many contests for the coveted spots in the cast, the triumph and heartbreak of "what they did for love," an introduction to and/or re-experiencing one of the seminal musicals of our time.
The late Michael Bennett's original production of "A Chorus Line" ran on Broadway for 15 years from 1975 on, was seen by six million people, it won a Pulitzer, nine Tonys, and many other awards. Subsequent productions have circled the globe.
It all started with an all-night session of dancers in 1974, invited by Bennett to talk about their lives. There was an open-reel recorder in the room, and the tape survived to this day. Excerpts from it, text that went right into the show, are heard in "Every Little Step," along with snippets of the original production, public appearances and conversations between Bennett and his colleagues, including the director/choreographer Bob Avian.
Interspersed with scenes from the origins and legacy of the show are the settings of the recent present as Avian and others - including the original "Connie," Baayork Lee, now the choreographer - are auditioning singers and dancers for the 2006 restaging of "A Chorus Line." The camera follows relentlessly the young hopefuls on and off stage, winners and losers alike in breathtaking Cinéma vérité.
In one unforgettable scene, the very young Jason Tam's audition with "Paul's monologue" (about a father's acceptance of his gay son) has all the hardbitten audition judges in tears, amazingly so as they have heard that text constantly for over three decades.
Another scene with "Cassie" dancer Charlotte d'Amboise's father - the great Balanchine star Jacques d'Amboise - is poignant as the aged and crippled dancer speaks glowingly of the power and beauty of ballet.
In the mix of dancers' real life, the show about it, the life and artistry of those auditioning for the roles, everything coheres into an affecting, fascinating, eventually deeply moving whole.
