SONG SUNG BLUE (A-minus) - For the number of tragedies that occur in this film -- about a husband and wife performing in a Neil Diamond tribute band -- it is tough to call it the feel-good movie of the holiday season. But what a joyful experience it was at the cineplex to behold the fervor that Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson brought to the story of a Wisconsin couple chasing their dreams in the 1990s.
Riffing on a real-life tale (and a 2008 documentary of the same name), Jackman plays Mike "Lightning" Sardina, a natural performer who jams in tribute bands but longs to front his own act. He is 20 years into recovery for alcohol addiction, and writer-director Craig Brewer provides a memorable introduction to the character via the AA meeting process (with a bookend to close the movie). Mike stumbles on the idea of being a Neil Diamond "interpreter," and he meets and falls for Patsy Cline interpreter Claire. He dubs them Lighting and Thunder, and they start to gain a following around the Milwaukee area.
Nothing is easy for them. They are divorced parents. (In fact, the kids are one of the best parts of the movie, especially Ella Anderson as Claire's daughter, Rachel.) Money is always tight. Mike, a Vietnam veteran, has a congenital heart condition; Claire suffers an accident that sends her into a spiral of depression and threatens their career.
With Jackman and Hudson all in, you might not care that the proceedings have a whiff of Hallmark to them at times. The actors sing Diamond's songs, and the movie resounds with Diamond's earnest ballads and jangly rockers. At times I sang along. I laughed, I cried. (I can't remember the last time I heard so many sniffles from a crowd -- and it wasn't just the old ladies.) It helps to have an appreciation for "Cherry Cherry," "Cracklin' Rosie," and "I'm a Believer," and tolerance for "I Am I Said" and, yes, "Sweet Caroline." There is a wonderful running gag about Mike's insistence on opening each set with the obscure Arabic-accented deep cut "Soolaimon." Eddie Vedder was a fan and had them open for Pearl Jam.
Jackman and Hudson are backed by a fine cast of character actors, including Michael Imperioli (as a Buddy Holly impersonator), Fisher Stevens and an absolutely over-the-top Jim Belushi. Brewer has a tangible appreciation for quirky denizens of karaoke clubs and the public's yen for the classic radio hits of their youth. He captures the working-class grit of the characters -- down to the dirt under the fingernails of Mike, who is a mechanic by trade, and Claire's very Wisconsin accent (a tad overdone at times by Hudson).
Brewer wrote the script with Greg Kohs, who helmed the documentary 17 years ago. Whether you like his movies or not, you have to admit that Brewer knows how to put a film together. He broke through 20 years ago with "Hustle & Flow" and "Black Snake Moan," and he recently acquitted himself well with "Dolemite Is My Name." Here he whips his two stars toward passionate performances -- both as actors themselves and the energy of the characters they play.
I don't really needto know anything about the real Mike and Claire in order to appreciate "Song Sung Blue." I'm sure much is made up and twisted around to make it palatable to the masses. That's the point. It's a movie, fiction. It's 133 minutes of old-fashioned entertainment, and it couldn't have arrived at a better time.
JAY KELLY (C) - The decline and fall of Noah Baumbach continues. At this point, he is at the hobnobbing-with-George-Clooney stage of his flirtation with the Hollywood in-crowd. This profile of a movie star who wakes up at 60 and realizes that he is isolated from friends and family is trite, cloying and painfully twee.
Maybe it's the curse of his ex, Jennifer Jason Leigh, but ever since Baumbach took up with Mumblecore's ur-gal Greta Gerwig, he has succeeded with "Frances Ha" and not much else. He was revived in 2019 by "Marriage Story," but since then he has whiffed on a Don DeLillo interpretation; flopped magnificently by co-writing "Barbie" with Gerwig; and now he masturbates for 2 hours 12 minutes with "Jay Kelly," a movie that isn't even good enough to be criticized as derivative.
Clooney plays a thinly veiled version of himself -- suave, charming, talented, faux self-effacing -- as he hopscotches the world battling a late-in-life crisis involving his grown daughters, his loyal manager and his fawning entourage. He seems blind to the true extent of his luck-of-the-draw, and though on the brink of a valedictory tribute from the Italian film industry, he considers pulling the plug on the whole celebrity circus. Even so, he swans in crisp couture suit jackets, slums with his fans, and gets all puppy-eyed as he seeks belated approval from his daughters. (Riley Keough is thoroughly wasted as one of them.) All the while, he is adored and fussed over by rich Italian eccentrics. (Alba Rohrwacher is forced to demean herself as a fawning fan. She edges out a criminally mistreated Laura Dern in that regard.)
Jay actually wanders back to his past, George Bailey-like, wistfully observing his most memorable moments, tearing up at these mundane, sepia-toned dalliances. Yes, we've seen this all before, ad nauseam. This is Fellini for Dummies. It is Bargain-Basement Bogdanovich. (The end credits refer to the film, preciously, as a "Noah Baumbach picture.") Running gags and wisecracks get beaten into the ground. (There must be a dozen references to Jay insisting on a slice of cheesecake in his regular rider, even though he claims he never liked cheesecake. It was unfunny the first time.) And speaking of hang-dogs, Adam Sandler (from Baumbach's "The Meyerowitz Stories") hams it up as Jay's mensch of a manager, going around affectionately calling people "puppy" and ironically wearing a neckerchief simply as a glaring plot invention that fails to pay off in the end.
The film is full of cutesy touches by Baumbach that threaten to rot your teeth they are so treacly. Gerwig's steep decline continues in the role of Sandler's hectoring, scatter-brained wife, featured exclusively through phone calls involving their kids, which is as interesting as it is in real life when parents think their children are fascinating subjects of discussion. In my "Barbie" review, I predicted that Baumbach and Gerwig might "become the beloved it-couple in front-row seats at awards shows, head-nodding toward Wes Anderson in the back." We're getting closer.
It has been 20 years since "The Squid and the Whale" and 15 since "Greenberg." Like Jay Kelly, Baumbach had a great run. Maybe, like Jay, Baumbach is surrounded by sycophants who don't want to rock the boat and tell him to snap out of his fantasy world.
BONUS TRACKS
I'm pretty sure this was the first time I danced in the aisles to a song over the closing credits of a movie. The hymn "Holly Holy":
Mike and Claire initially rehearse to a rollicking version of "Cherry Cherry," celebrating that giddy piano riff. Here is Diamond in the mid-'90s working it out on David Letterman's show:
The very first episode of MTV's "Unplugged," when it was hosted by Jules Shear, put together a hootenanny circle to perform Diamond's composition "I'm a Believer," which had been a hit for the Monkees:
"Song Sung Blue" was our annual Christmas Day outing. For the record, here is our full list from previous years, in order of preference, updated:
1. Up in the Air (2009)
2. Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)
3. Dreamgirls (2006)
4. Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
5. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
6. Little Women (2019)
7. Song Sung Blue (2025)
8. Babygirl (2024)
9. The Fighter (2010)
10. Licorice Pizza (2021)
11. American Hustle (2013)
12. The Shape of Water (2017)
13. La La Land (2016)
14. The Wrestler (2008)
15. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
16. Young Adult (2011)
17. This Is 40 (2012)
18. Anyone But You (2023)
19. Holmes & Watson (2018)
20. Into the Woods (2014)
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