Karaoke

Jason (Zac Efron) sta per sposarsi con la figlia del suo capo e diventare così socio nello studio legale del suocero. Quando però il puritano Jason cade nella trappola del nonno Dick (Robert De Niro), che lo costringe ad accompagnarlo a Daytona per le vacanze di primavera, le sue nozze vengono messe seriamente a rischio. Tra feste, risse da bar e una serata epica di karaoke, Dick vuole godersi il viaggio più selvaggio della sua vita sempre al massimo. Alla fine il nonno zozzone e il nipote bacchettone scoprono di poter imparare molto l’uno dall'altro e creare quel legame che non avevano mai avuto prima.

Jason (Zac Efron) sta per sposarsi con la figlia del suo capo e diventare così socio nello studio legale del suocero. Quando però il puritano Jason cade nella trappola del nonno Dick (Robert De Niro), che lo costringe ad accompagnarlo a Daytona per le vacanze di primavera, le sue nozze vengono messe seriamente a rischio. Tra feste, risse da bar e una serata epica di karaoke, Dick vuole godersi il viaggio più selvaggio della sua vita sempre al massimo. Alla fine il nonno zozzone e il nipote bacchettone scoprono di poter imparare molto l’uno dall'altro e creare quel legame che non avevano mai avuto prima.

In the heart of Portugal, amid the mountains, the month of August is abuzz with people and activity. Emigrants return home, set off fireworks, fight fires, sing karaoke, hurl themselves from bridges, hunt wild boar, drink beer, make babies. If the director and film crew had got straight to it and resisted the temptation to join in the festivities the synopsis would come down to: Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto follows the affective relationship between a father and daughter, and the daughters cousin, all musicians in a dance band. So, love and music then.

Two very different twin sisters from the Netherlands (real-life siblings Carice and Jelka van Houten) travel to America to help out the mother they have never met (Academy Award winner Holly Hunter) in Dutch director Antoinette Beumer's heartwarming, cross-cultural take on the classic American road movie.

A romantic Chinese New Year comedy about the three Shang brothers. Eldest brother Shang Moon is a philandering businessman who treats his hideous yet hard-working wife like dirt. Middle brother Shang Foon is a disc jockey/playboy who tries to score …

Most of the volumes in Aebersold's "Play-A-Long" series feature a selection of 10-12 jazz standards, though some focus on scales, standardized chord progressions (like the blues), or original compositions by Aebersold's collaborators. The books contain charts for the tunes in question, transposed as necessary for instruments in C, B-flat, E-flat, and bass clef. The recordings normally feature a professional rhythm section (typically piano, bass, and drums, occasionally including guitar) performing an improvised accompaniment (or "comping") to each song. Melody instruments like saxophone and trumpet are omitted, enabling a jazz student to practice playing the song's melody, and improvising over the song's chord changes, with accompaniment. (Related examples of this format include the "Music Minus One" series and the popular pastime of karaoke.)

Like a good dream, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation envelops you with an aura of fantastic light, moody sound, head-turning love, and a feeling of déjà vu, even though you've probably never been to this neon-fused version of Tokyo. Certainly Bob Harris has not. The 50-ish actor has signed on for big money shooting whiskey ads instead of doing something good for his career or his long-distance family. Jetlagged, helplessly lost with his Japanese-speaking director, and out of sync with the metropolis, Harris (Bill Murray, never better) befriends the married but lovelorn 25-year-old Charlotte (played with heaps of poise by 18-year-old Scarlett Johansson). Even before her photographer husband all but abandons her, she is adrift like Harris but in a total entrapment of youth. How Charlotte and Bill discover they are soul mates will be cherished for years to come. Written and directed by Coppola (The Virgin Suicides), the film is far more atmospheric than plot-driven: we whiz through Tokyo parties, karaoke bars, and odd nightlife, always ending up in the impossibly posh hotel where the two are staying. The wisps of bittersweet loneliness of Bill and Charlotte are handled smartly and romantically, but unlike modern studio films, this isn't a May-November fling film. Surely and steadily, the film ends on a much-talked-about grace note, which may burn some, yet awards film lovers who "always had Paris" with another cinematic destination of the heart. –Doug Thomas