I'm the last on my block to see The Soloist, starring Jamie Foxx as Nathaniel Ayers and Robert Downey Jr. as LATimes columnist Steve Lopez, who wrote the book the movie is based on.  Ayers is a solid musician with mental problems, probably schizophrenia that developed when he was under tremendous pressure in his late teens at Julliard, especially as the only African American in the high-powered, elite music academy.  Lopez first encounters him in the Second Street tunnel of  LA, homeless but connected to himself through--and often only through--music.  As usual, the book is "better" than the movie--more complete, more complex.  But the movie is excellent, especially the tension between Ayers and Lopez.  In their mid-fifties, both men are complicated and often not very nice.  But then, they mirror the streets of LA.