New Film ‘Karaoke’ Poses Question: Is ‘Coming of Age’ Applicable to the Geriatric Set?
What’s lovely about ‘Karaoke’ is how it maintains a tried-and-true story arc while traversing byways that haven’t necessarily been tried and encompassing truths that are, in the end, complicated.

Mention a work of art touted as a “coming of age” narrative and you’re likely to conjure up visions of unruly young folks like Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” or, maybe, Dustin Hoffman’s character in “The Graduate,” Benjamin Braddock. You remember Ben: the recently minted college graduate whose aimlessness leads him into the boudoir of Mrs. Robinson, a friend of the family indelibly portrayed by Anne Bancroft.
Young people grow in experience, insight, and, we hope, maturity, but how about men and women who undergo something similar at later moments of their lives? They are, presumably, older and wiser. Is “coming of age” at all applicable to the geriatric set? That is the question posed by “Karaoke,” the new film from Israeli writer and director Moshe Rosenthal.
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