THE FIRST OF MAY

Call this the Little Movie That Could, an all-ages delight that convinced the very private baseball legend Joe DiMaggio to step up to the plate and take a supporting role. The title is circus slang for a young newcomer to the show, but when we first meet 11-year-old Cory he's a cynical veteran – of the Florida foster care system, which has shuttled him from one institution to another since age four. Uneasily placed with a well-meaning young family, Cory finds a more kindred spirit in an entirely different home. An nursing home. That's where Carlotta, a defiant old lady who spent most of her years with a circus, bridles at a retirement regimen of bland food and sleeping pills. Together Cory and Carlotta run away, the boy pretending to be his traveling companion's grandson. The unlikely duo stay a step ahead of authorities thanks to their wits (and Carlotta's winning recipe for halvah) and eventually find a haven under the Big Top. What a treat to see the multigenerational cast in a one-of-a-kind movie that rediscovers childhood innocence, acceptance, and magic under the colorful tent, and adds the Yankee Clipper as a bonus.