(For Day 24 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem about “people making music together,” ideally with a reference to another poem or song, so I took a comedian’s metaphorical view.)

Music can sound like many things,
Beyond the range of voice and strings.
To Andrew Lloyd Webber, the yowls of cats;
To Dracula, ‘tis the shrieks of bats;
To Beethoven, a silent dream;
To Pollock, friendship with a theme;
To writers, their pithier paragraphs;
But in my case, it’s laughs.

I’ve trained my ear here over the years,
And many a friend has shared premieres:
A generous bellow is melody mellow,
And chuckles transport me more than any cello;
A snicker is symphony; cracks, a cornet;
And two people cackling’s like a duet.
I’ve been a conductor of smiles, my dear,
A banter-and-beam balladeer.
________________________

MPA rating: PG-13

Directed and co-written by Billy Crystal (alongside SNL writer Alan Zweibel), Here Today is my kind of film, the sort that critics acknowledge as pleasant while criticizing its sentimentality. Well, maybe I’m just sentimental because I thoroughly enjoyed it! Crystal plays aging comedy writer Charlie Burnz, who is trying to hide his developing symptoms of Alzheimer’s from his coworkers and estranged children. Through a serendipity of spite and epinephrine, he builds an unlikely relationship with a singer named Emma (Tiffany Haddish), who becomes the friend and confidante he needs most right now.

Crystal still boasts an effortless comic touch and manages to mix it with deep pathos as his character feels his life, his work, his memories of love slipping away. I’m generally not a fan of Haddish’s loud-mouthed comedy, but she reins it in somewhat while remaining an endearing contrast to Charlie. (It’s neat knowing they became real-life friends too.) There’s some awkward uncertainty over whether their bond will veer toward romance, but thankfully it stays meaningfully platonic.

Along with some nice cameos, Here Today has several great scenes that could be deemed corny with the right cynicism, like Charlie’s flashbacks to his wife, his epic comedic meltdown during a live show, or Emma’s impromptu singalong at a bat mitzvah, but I like to keep my cynicism low enough to enjoy a film like this. Its release sadly suffered from the lingering pandemic slump, but, in my book, Here Today is another charmer to Billy Crystal’s credit.

Best line: (Charlie) “I’m writing something, and I have to finish before my words run out.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

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