Song Sung Blue, based on a true story, tells of a Neil Diamond tribute band named Lightning and Thunder, which played together for a couple decades starting in the 80s. Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman) is on the impersonator circuit as Don Ho with the “Elvis’s” and “James Browns” of the world when he meets his future wife, Claire (Kate Hudson), who’s been performing as “Patsy Cline.” With his look, it is her idea to do a Neil Diamond band. They put together a decent band and hit the local bars in the Wisconsin area. Mike is initially reluctant to start every show with Sweet Caroline, even though that’s the tune everyone wants, since Neil Diamond has so many other good songs, but once he gives in, the band starts growing in local popularity. When a “new” band is touring through the area and lead singer Eddie Vedder reaches out to Mike to have Lightning and Thunder open for them on a Friday night, Mike accepts only when his daughter goes nuts that the band is Pearl Jam. Doing so brings Lightning and Thunder new fans, and the sky looks to be the limit, until a car goes off the road in front of their house and hits Claire. She loses a leg in the accident, derailing their career and maybe their life together. The movie is awfully predictable, and I guessed how it was going to play out within the first 20 minutes or so. However, the music is full of bangers, and Hugh Jackman is the kind of throwback entertainer who can do it all. Very average, but I’ll bump it up a half star for the great musical performances. ★★★
There’s a few actors that I will see in any movie they do, and Tim Blake Nelson is one of them. The dude has the rough-and-tumble, down-on-his-luck routine down cold, which is exactly what the character Bernard “Bang Bang” Rozyski is. Once a promising boxer in the Detroit area, Bernard is still loved in the area and is living off his one-time fame, but his past reputation as a heavy hitter is pretty much all he has left. One day his ex-wife asks Bernard to look after his grandson Justin for a short time, as Justin’s mom has recently left the family and the father is in jail. Justin is nearly an adult, and no one wants to see him go down a bad path, but Bernard may not be the best role model. He starts training Justin up on boxing, even though Justin’s heart really isn’t in it, and seems to only be doing it to please his grandpa. For much of the film, we think the villain of the movie is Darnell, the boxer who took down Bernard and, we learn later, Bernard’s brother, changing the trajectory of an entire family. However, the final revealed bad guy ends up not even a character in the movie, though his ghost hangs over the entirety of it. Is that obtuse enough for you? Fantastic acting from Nelson, in a movie about the flaws of humanity, even when everyone is trying to do the right thing. Very raw and “real” feeling. ★★★½
Eternity is a delightful romantic comedy for the more “mature” (older) crowd, which somehow I’ve found myself in (when did that happen?). It opens innocuously enough: an older couple, Larry and Joan, married for 65 years, are going to a gender reveal in the family, bickering in the car the whole way there (anyone with older parents can relate). At the party, someone picks up an old picture of a young Joan with another (very good looking) young man, and someone remarks that he, Luke, was Joan’s first short-lived marriage, because Luke died in the Korean War. Joan looks at the picture longingly, just before Larry chokes to death on a pretzel. He awakens on a train, as a much younger self (Miles Teller), and is told that he has died and is now at Junction, where souls get to pick which Eternity they would like to live from now on. They get 1 week to decide, or they must take a job there at Junction, because once they pick an Eternity, there’s no changing. Larry takes the full week, and finally picks Beach World, leaving a note with his case worker to tell Joan when she finally dies, so that she can join him there. On his way out though, he sees a much younger Joan (Elizabeth Olsen), as she only lasted another week on Earth without him. Unfortunately for Larry, he’s not the only person waiting for her. Luke (Callum Turner), dead now 67 years, took a job as a bartender on Junction, and has been patiently waiting for the love of his life. Now Joan has a decision to make, because, again, she can only pick one Eternity, and she has a week to decide: her first love, which she never really had a chance to explore, or the man (who may have been her “second” choice) that she shared a lifetime with. Cute, funny, and heartwarming, it’s a great date movie for middle-agers and older, especially if you’ve shared a life with a partner who can relate to all of the things couples go through together. ★★★½
Urchin is the directorial debut from Harris Dickinson, who seems to have been around a long time but whose first acting role, Beach Rats, was less than a decade ago. Urchin stars Frank Dillane (recognizable as Nick from Fear the Walking Dead) as Mike, a homeless young man addicted to drugs. He seems like a good kid, but hints at a hard childhood and addiction have veered his life off course. When a man tries to do well for him by offering a meal, Mike punches him and steals his watch. He is arrested shortly after and spends 8 months in jail. It might be a blessing in disguise, as Mike reenters the world clean and sober, and social services helps him land a job as a chef’s assistant at a hotel and a place to stay. However, Mike’s past experiences haven’t taught him to handle discord well, and when a customer complains about a meal, Mike loses it. His work suffers, and he ends up losing the job. At his new job as a trash collector, he starts hanging around the sorts of people from his former life, including some that do drugs, and it isn’t long before Mike is back on the street and looking for a fix. It’s a powerful film about the baggage we can carry around if we don’t learn how to deal with it. Lots of promise from the first-time writer/director, who has obviously learned a lot on the sets of all the indie movies he’s acted in over the last decade. Solid first effort. ★★★½
La Grazia is the latest from Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, whose unhurried films can test some patiences, but I really dig him. It follows the waining term of a fictional Italian president, Mariano, who has to make some tough decisions in his final weeks as President. A lifelong and fervent catholic, who counts the Pope as a close friend, Mariano has a bill on his desk to legalize euthanasia for the extremely ill. It’s a popular bill amongst the people, but obviously he is struggling with its religious significance. There are also 2 pardons for him to consider: a wife who stabbed her husband to death after 15 years of abuse, and a husband who strangled his wife who was suffering from Alzheimers. Through all this, Mariano’s private thoughts often turn to his recently deceased wife, and an affair she had 40 years ago. Mariano is determined to find out who that man was. The film is beautifully shot, delicately written and delivered, and is about as touching a film as you’ll find today. The kind of movie that gives you plenty to think about after the credits roll. ★★★★
- TV series recently watched: Daredevil (season 3)
- Book currently reading: Paul of Dune by Herbert & Anderson
Jons Movie Takes 