It's fitting that Michael Caine — Sir Michael since the queen wisely knighted him in 2000 — is cast here as a magician. Caine's acting wizardry should be taught at Hogwarts. Alfie, Sleuth, The Man Who Would Be King, Dressed to Kill, Educating Rita, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Cider House Rules, The Quiet American, The Dark Knight. I could go on. Caine sure does.

Now, at 76, he's using the lessons of a long career to show how it's done in Is Anybody There? Oddly enough, Caine's magician — the Amazing Clarence — is losing his gifts. Sleight of hand doesn't work so well when your hands (and memory) are shaky. And so, in 1987, widower Clarence drives his van to an English retirement home, where time weighs heavily, even on the youngish couple (David Morrissey and Anne-Marie Duff) running the place. Their 10-year-old son, Edward (a very fine Bill Milner), is so obsessed with death, he tapes last gasps of guests. It's a setup for life lessons. Director John Crowley (Boy A) doesn't dodge the gooey traps in the script by Peter Harness (writing from his own experiences). But Caine does. Blending humor and heartbreak in a performance that makes a small movie a richly satisfying one, Caine truly is magic.

“Too Close”

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'"