Crossroads

While it begins as a variation of sorts on The Karate Kid, with young Macchio learning life lessons and string-picking from an old bluesman (Seneca) he rescues from a New York nursing-home, when their odyssey on the road reaches the Mississippi Delta this atypical Walter Hill movie develops into a strange fantasy mingling the legends of Faust and Robert Johnson. The latter element works better than the Devil business, and the script, by John (Young Guns) Fusco, might have had more resonance than the finished film, which is too slick for its own good. But Seneca is worth watching, Ry Cooder's score is among his best work, and this certainly isn't sequel fodder.