Cool & Crazy on the Road

Knut Erik Jensen's international award-winning documentary Cool & Crazy introduced the world to the Berlevag Male Choir (Norway's answer to the Buena Vista Social Club), which hails from the same remote fishing village that provided the setting for Isak Dinesen's story "Babette's Feast," and is comprised of about 30 men ranging in age from 29 to 96. In the face of economic hardship, and brutal weather, not to mention a shortage of women, the choir members find refuge in the traditional ballads and hymns they so stirringly perform. The sequel Cool & Crazy on the Road is a quirky chronicle of the choir's tour of 2001 American tour, which finds them arriving in New York just three weeks following the tragic events of 9/11. The curious sight of the men serenading bystanders on tour buses and subways gives way to more profoundly touching encounters with New York's Ground Zero rescue workers and firefighters, who are visibly moved by the choir's ethereal harmonies and compassionate songs ("Joy smiles through our tears," goes one lyric). During their visit, the United States attacked Afghanistan, inspiring some bitter commentary from one of the more radical choir members, but politics mostly takes a backseat to the music and the choir's fish-out-of-water experiences in such far-flung locales as Sun Studios in Memphis and the Universal Studios theme park in Burbank. A worthy and entertaining encore to the original, this is recommended. (K. Lee Benson)