Song Sung Blue

I love being reminded of why I try to avoid all trailers, press, and reviews of movies, even ones I'm not especially excited about, before I see them. I went into the latest from Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan, Dolemite Is My Name) thinking I was gonna see a Neil Diamond biopic, along the lines of A Beautiful Noise, the biographical jukebox musical I was dragged to see a few years ago before it made it to Broadway. But as the film started, and a long way into it, I thought I was watching a John Carney picture, one of the Irish writer/director's quasi-musical/quasi-rom-coms like Begin Again or Flora and Son. But the more the film went on, the more surprising and wild its turns became. Then, at the end, I learned it was based on a documentary, and these folks were real people. Well, I gotta see this documentary. But regardless of how much license may or may not have been taken with the true story, Brewer has delivered a good, old-fashioned crowd-pleaser. A film as free of pretension, irony, and humility as Neil Diamond himself. We used to get dozens of these movies like this, and life was better because of it.

I won't go into any detail about the story, but I will say it's great to see Hugh Jackman get to play another song-and-dance man. He excels in roles like this, and Mike Sardina, aka "Lightning," is a bit richer of a character than he often gets to play when in this mode. And as unprepared as I was for 28-year-old Hailee Steinfeld in Sinners, I was equally floored to discover middle-aged Kate Hudson. Wow, she is incredible; she creates a character that feels genuine, lived in, and sexy. I really had no idea where this story was going, but I was gonna follow wherever these two led me. The narrative's twists and turns unfold and resolve in ways that are a bit abrupt, since Brewer needs to ensure there's enough screen time for the stage numbers, but I'll forgive the fact that the stakes never feel high enough, given what this story is about and its outcomes.

There are also a million other questions that I guess I'll have to see the doc to know. Do these folks have day jobs? Is he still a mechanic? Was she ever a hairdresser? Are their daughters a couple? Actually, I have no idea if the documentary will answer these, but no matter. I'm sure glad every movie isn't like Song Sung Blue, but I'm bummed that no movies seem to be anymore. And, while I think Jessie Buckley is a wonderful actress, nothing would please me more than seeing Hudson win multiple Best Actress awards all season long, leaving Chloé Zhao's dreadful Hamnet empty-hamnded.