On Movies: Enjoy film, but please, they're not puppies

'There's one thing that really gets my wig," says the very British

Stephen Walker

, "and that's people who say, 'Oh, they're so adorable, they're so cute.' "

Walker is citing the response from a few folks who have seen his

Young

@ Heart

- about the

Young @ Heart Chorus

, a group of senior citizens wailing rocking versions of hits by

Coldplay

, the

Ramones

,

Sonic Youth

and

Talking Heads

- and who have labeled the feisty septuagenarians, octogenarians and nonagenarians as cuddly, lovable oldsters.

"To me that's a bad review, even if it's a good review," says the BBC-trained Walker, "because they're

not

cute. Seven-year-olds are cute, little kittens are cute, but these people are not cute. They have this amazing wealth of experience . . . and they've made very extraordinary choices in their lives."

Young @ Heart

, which opened Friday at the Ritz Five and Showcase at the Ritz Center/NJ, was a standout of the just-ended Philadelphia Film Festival. The picture, originally made for Channel Four in the U.K., was the cause of a big bidding war when it premiered in January at Sundance. Fox Searchlight, which has worked wonders with

Juno,

nabbed the feature, which follows the chorus and its musical director,

Bob Cilman

, as they go through arduous rehearsals for a gig at the concert hall in the group's hometown, Northampton, Mass.

Walker, whose work has run the gamut from covering the L.A. porn biz (

Hardcore

) to the deployment of the A-bomb (

Hiroshima - A Day That Shook the World

), first caught the chorus at a London concert in 2005. His wife, and producing partner,

Sally George

, made him go.

"And I have to tell you - I really wasn't sure," he says. "I think I had the same reaction that some audiences will have when they come to this film. I was very nervous about it being patronizing, I was very nervous about it being a gimmick. I was worried about dancing-bear territory, really."

All that changed once

Joe Benoit

,

Helen Boston

(a former school bus driver from Lancaster),

Miriam Leader

,

Fred Knittle

,

Bob Salvini

and the rest of Cilman's gang took the stage.

"I remember being really amazed by the presence of their voices," says the 46-year-old Londoner. "They have these big voices, I wasn't expecting that. And I also loved the way the lyrics suddenly took on these new meanings when these guys sang. You know, the Clash's 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' became a song about life or death, the Talking Heads' 'Road to Nowhere' became about mortality, the Ramones' 'I Want to Be Sedated' became this defiant, ironic commentary on senior care. . . .

"They all suddenly became different. And I started paying attention to the lyrics in a way that I never had before. . . . All the stereotypes I had in my mind were blown to smithereens."

With jaunty, un-documentarylike music videos inserted into the mix, and some poignant and unexpected turns in the narrative,

Young @ Heart

is being sold as a crowd-pleaser, which frankly gives Walker a bit of concern.

"Fox rightly are marketing this that way, but I always worry about that term," he says. "

Bridget Jones

is a crowd-pleaser.

Four Weddings and a Funeral

is a crowd-pleaser. I never conceived this film like this.

"I always conceived this as a film which, although it would have some joyous, wonderful and very funny moments . . . would be unflinching in the really difficult areas. . . . And it always slightly worries me that the impression people might get when they come to this film is 'Oh, isn't it great, it's so wonderful and they sing these songs, la-di-da. You know, just lovely.'

"But actually," he adds, "we go right to the heart of what's going to happen to all of us."

Festival wrap.

The 17th Philadelphia Film Festival wound up its 13-day-and-night run on Tuesday, and a very select few of the 246 films from 49 countries came away with prizes.

Juried awards went to

Pieter Kuijpers'

Nothing to Lose

(best feature);

Greg

Kohs'

Song Sung Blue

(best doc);

Jeremiah Zagar's

In a Dream

(best first film);

Rahmin Bahrani

(best director, for

Chop Shop

);

Luke Eberl's

Choose Connor

(best American independent);

Fumihiko Sori's

Vexille

(animated feature), and

Armand

Demuynck's

"Breakout" (animated short).

Audience awards were doled to

Ann Calamia's

Universal Signs

(feature);

Phil Donahue

and

Ellen Spiro's

Body of War

(doc); and

Nacho Vigalondo's

Timecrimes

(best Danger After Dark entry).

The Festival of Independents Award winners were

Tom Quinn's

The New Year Parade

(feature);

Benjamin Herold's

First Person

(documentary);

Jena Serbu's

"Figure Study #7" (narrative);

Dan Pinto's

"Hedgehug" (animation); and

Lindsay Kovnat's

"AYND" (experimental).

Additionally,

In a Dream

nabbed the DIVE Technical Achievement Award,

First Person's

Herold took the Scion First Time Director Award, and

Daniel

Barnz

, director of

Phoebe in Wonderland

, received the Archie Award, a juried kudo presented in honor of the late Philadelphia cineaste and scholar

Archie Perlmutter

.

Short subject.

American Gangster

man

Sir Ridley Scott

has picked his next directing job (he's already got another,

Body of Lies

, with

Russell Crowe

and

Leonardo DiCaprio

, in the can). It's called

The Kind One

, based on the

Tom Epperson

noir novel. Set in '30s L.A., it's about an amnesiac who finds himself working for a mobster, and falling for the mobster's moll. Recent Oscar nominee

Casey Affleck

is attached to star, says Variety.