Song Sung Blue: A Review - A Bizarre and Bewildering Bio-Pic

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SKIP IT/SEE IT. This is one of the strangest stories and movies I’ve seen in a while. It isn’t the slightest bit good, but it could be something worth watching just to see the absolute insanity of it all.

Song Sung Blue, starring Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman, is a bio-pic that chronicles the tumultuous life and times of Mike and Claire Sardina, a duo who back in the 1990s performed as Lightning and Thunder – a Neil Diamond tribute band.

The film, which is written and directed by Craig Brewer and is based on the Greg Kohs book of the same name, hit theatres on Christmas Day and is now available to stream on Peacock…which is where I just watched it.

I don’t know how else to say this but…Song Sung Blue is one of the most batshit crazy movies I’ve seen in a long time. What makes it all the more insane is that it is actually a true story.

I went into Song Sung Blue expecting a sort of light-hearted, feel-good, little love story or rom-com type of movie featuring Jackman and Hudson doing their usual charming movie star turns, getting some laughs, and singing some Neil Diamond songs – a decent enough formula.

The film certainly seems like just that exact thing through the first hour of its two-hour and twelve-minute runtime. Then, literally out of nowhere, things go absolutely apeshit. And when I say absolutely apeshit…I mean…ABSOLUTELY APESHIT.

I will not give any spoilers about this movie at all because that wouldn’t be fair to readers and also you wouldn’t believe me if I told you anyway. Let’s just say that Song Sung Blue is definitely not a romance or a rom-com or a feel-good sing-song fun time. No, Song Sung Blue is definitely a drama…a bad, hackneyed drama, but a drama nonetheless.

Apparently, the Mike and Claire Sardina story – which is essentially a modern version of the Book of Job chronicling the plagues through which these two poor people must suffer, is somewhat well-known, but it wasn’t well-known to me, and frankly, it is so insanely crazy that it feels fake…like something conjured in the mind of a psychologically-twisted soap opera writer who is very drunk and also on copious amounts of psychedelics.

Writer/director Craig Brewer struggles mightily to make this outrageous story feel the least bit real. It’s shot like a bad Hallmark channel movie, and it features some of the most bizarre scenes and sequences you’ve ever seen in your life. The one overriding characteristic of the film is that it is drowned under a gigantic tsunami of schmaltz.

There’s a bevy of paper-thin, cardboard cutout characters that do not in any way resemble human beings, who all have hearts of gold and soft-smiles. There’s a cavalcade of ludicrous situations made all the more ludicrous by the ham-fisted way in which they are executed. There’s also a hospital sequence that, like much of the rest of the film, feels like an SNL skit that was cut from the show because it was too over-the-top, unintentionally funny and also it made no sense.

Kate Hudson has been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her work as Claire – Thunder to Mike’s Lightning. Hudson does all the things she thinks she’s supposed to do…wears frumpy clothes, talks with a Midwestern accent, and all the rest…but what she doesn’t do is even try to hide the fact that she is trying really hard to act. Everything she does seems fake and completely devoid of any genuine humanity. It is all posing and preening and seems like someone not particularly good at acting trying really hard to actually act and signal to you that she’s acting.

Hudson, who has in her life been married to two prominent singers – Chris Robinson (of The Black Crows) and Matt Bellamy (of Muse), has fancied herself a singer in recent years and even put out an album in 2024. It seems like she took this role so she’d have a chance to sing on screen…no shame in that I suppose…but it all feels so forced and not organic and more than a little performative in a self-conscious, cutesy way.  

Hugh Jackman, always one to want to break into song and/or dance, does his usual Hugh Jackman stuff as Mike. He pushes way too hard and overacts a helluva lot, and it all feels like a sort-of-gay, theatre-muffin Wolverine is now the lead singer of a Neil Diamond tribute band.

Jackman’s singing, which is not something I think is generally very good, actually fits this character as he is not supposed to be all that great…so mission accomplished. But the more complicated emotional acting stuff needed from Jackman is not nearly as successful.

There are a cornucopia of supporting turns by the likes of Michael Imperioli – as a Buddy Holly impersonator, and Jim Belushi as a bus driver, and Fisher Stevens as a dentist, that are all rather cringe-worthy in their vacuity….so there’s that.

The strangest thing about this movie is how it tackles some rather enormous dramatic material in the most thoughtless and frivolous of ways. It is such a tonally deaf and emotionally obtuse movie that it frankly feels kind of offensive towards the real people it is dramatizing and their sizable real-life suffering.

Maybe I am either over or under-thinking the whole thing. Maybe making a schmaltzy, saccharine and slightly unhinged movie about two slightly unhinged people who make a life out of singing the saccharine and schmaltzy anthems of Neil Diamond is the point of all this. If so, then…I guess they did their job. But unfortunately, the movie just doesn’t work except in having you continually shaking your head and dropping your jaw in disbelief at what just happened on the screen.

I was thinking that this might be the type of movie that certain segments of the population might seek out and enjoy. Older audiences who are Neil Diamond fans might seek it out. And Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson fans as well. But I can’t help but think that they would have the same expectations that I did going in and really be shocked, and probably disappointed, at what they find.

Those who go into the film knowing it is a drama might receive it a bit better, but only people who like a rather broad and basic type of drama will truly enjoy it – and I don’t say that as a negative judgement on those people, just in an attempt to properly categorize the film.

The bottom line is that I don’t think this is a good film…but it might be a fun film to watch just to see how batshit it really is – just know that going in and it will make the viewing experience more worthwhile. So, if you want to spend a little over two hours laughing at the poorly rendered misery of two very unfortunate real-people…then Song Sung Blue might be for you.

©2026

A Star is Born: A Review

****THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SKIP IT. No need to see this tired old horse be beaten once again.

A Star is Born, written by Bradley Cooper, Eric Roth and Will Fetters and directed by Bradley Cooper, is the fictional story of the tumultuous relationship between famous singer/songwriter Jackson Maine and the talented newcomer he discovers named Ally. The film stars Bradley Cooper as Maine and Lady Gaga as Ally, with supporting turns from Sam Elliot, Andrew Dice Clay and Dave Chappelle.

For months now there has been a tremendous amount of buzz swirling around A Star is Born, with industry insiders gushing about Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut and Lady Gaga’s feature film debut. To be completely honest, I really had no interest in seeing A Star is Born, but solely out of a duty to you, my dear readers, I braved the perfect weather out here in Los Angeles and ventured out to the local cineplex in order to find out what all the fuss was about.

I went to the first show of the day on a Tuesday and the theatre was pretty crowded. I had also heard reports from other, less film business oriented parts of the country, that screenings had regularly been sold out even daytime screenings, since A Star is Born premiered. It seems that this is one of those movies that people who usually don’t go to the movies go to the movies to see.

As the lights dimmed and the film started I got distracted by an older couple entering my screening. This wasn’t just some old couple…this was the oldest couple. The man, or more accurately…the 2,000 year-old man, slowly but determinedly made his way up the stairs, with his wife, Methusala, close behind. It was hard to tell because of the darkness, but one of them was carrying a walker, which seemed strange to me that they would lug this thing all the way up the stairs. I would’ve done the chivalrous thing and helped them except I quickly deemed them enemies of my state for having arrived 15 minutes late for a movie, something that is irredeemably evil in my book.

Like the Sir Edmund Hillary of movie theaters, the 2,000 year old man climbed the stairs, then planted his flag and entered my row. He made a bee-line for the center of the row and I dutifully stood up to let him pass and stayed standing so his lagging sherpa of a wife could pass once she got to me. The thing to understand is this, I am an incredibly important and fancy person, so I only go to theatres that have assigned seats, and of course, being the law-abiding citizen that I am, I was sitting in my assigned seat.

The movie continued to play in the background as I watched the drama of the 2,000 year old man unfurl before me as he was trying to read his ticket number and the numbers on the seat in our very, very dark theatre. 2,000 year old man kept shuffling back and forth saying to himself, “fourteen and sixteen, fourteen and sixteen”. Little did 2,000 year old man know, but the even numbered seats were all the way over on the other side of the theatre, which would’ve been an Everest-esque climb to this guy who was as old as dirt. I was tempted to help 2,000 year old man out by picking him up and throwing him the 30 feet or so where his seats were, but I thought better of it…I didn’t want to get old people smell on me.

Methuselah then scurried by me and went from being a lagging wife to being a nagging wife when she decided to shout at her husband that she didn’t care where their seats numbers were, she was sitting down right where she was. She then told him to sit down too and shut up on top of it…and that is exactly what he did.

I then turned my attention to the movie screen and there was Bradley Cooper pretending to rock out with his guitar and I thought to myself “these old people are going to HATE this movie!”. It reminded me of when I was a kid and this equally decrepit old couple I knew peripherally were complaining to my parents after having seen Neil Diamond in The Jazz Singer. No doubt these dusty people saw the original The Jazz Singer when they were young and thought they were getting some more Al Jolson this time around and were viciously disappointed to get Neil Diamond instead because as we all know…Neil Diamond is no Al Jolson God-Damn it!!

The 2,000 year old man and his bridezilla Methuselah were probably a retired married couple with grown children out of the house when the original A Star is Born came out in 1937, and made a pledge to one another to only trek out to these new-fangled movie theatres if and when A Star is Born remake hit the big screen. So, by my count, this was officially the third time since 1937 that 2,000 year old man and Methuselah have hit the cineplex, having seen the 1954 Judy Garland/James Mason version of A Star is Born, followed by the Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson version in 1976…both of which I am sure were followed with a night of perfunctory yet ravenous lovemaking.

A glance at film history shows us that roughly every 20 years or so this old A Star is Born war horse is run out of the barn with a new saddle and new horseshoes and is dragged across the cultural consciousness. My math isn’t great but by my calculations that means that this new 2018 Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga version was long overdue, coming more than 40 years after the last Streisand/Kristofferson dance. As they say, everything old is new again or as I say about the 2,000 year old man and Methuselah, everything old gets older…and so it is with cinema. I am sure that 2,000 year old man and Methuselah kept their lifelong pact and followed up their A Star is Born viewing with an afternoon and evening of excruciatingly arduous and ancient sex…I hope they enjoyed that more than the movie.

In regards to this latest version of A Star is Born, I found it to be as cinematically vital and vibrant as watching 2,000 year old man and Methuselah’s afternoon delight…but before I dive into the shit pile, let’s try and focus on the positive for a moment.

The good news is that Bradley Cooper does terrific work as Jackson Maine. Cooper has matured into a quality actor and his Maine is no cookie - cutter character, but a rather a layered and complex human being. Cooper makes the wise decision to wrap Maine up tight and keep his wounds hidden until they split open and bleed all over him. I am not a Bradley Cooper fan, but I must say my respect for him as an actor is expanding over time.

Sam Elliot also does admirable work in a rather underwritten role as Maine’s brother, and every time he is on-screen the movie is elevated just a tiny bit from its descent into the bowels of absurdity.

Now for the bad news…well...A Star is Born is really little more than a paper thin exercise in star fucking. A Star is Born is the perfect Hollywood blockbuster for the Trump Age, all surface and no soul. It is a shallow, vacuous and empty shell of a film, a movie about stars, made by stars and is the perfect embodiment of reality tv filmmaking.

This is not a good movie, it is an amateurish, melo-dramatic soap-opera. I am willing to bet regular folks like the movie, but I found it to be insipid, insidious, absurd and cinematically obtuse.

Lady Gaga is undoubtedly a very talented women, but acting is not one of the talents she possesses. Yes, she is a terrific piano player and a remarkable singer, but her acting leaves a whole helluva lot to be desired. Gaga’s acting works in music videos because they are all surface and no substance and last about 4 minutes, but in a two hour movie, her lack of skill becomes more and more glaring with every passing scene.

Gaga is joined by her on-screen father, Andrew Dice Clay, as being uncomfortably bad in the movie. Clay seems like he is auditioning for a community production of Guys and Dolls or something.

As for the script…well…this film asks its audience to take extreme leaps of logic and to suspend its disbelief to such a great degree that it is simply untenable. While the core of the story is sort of “Hollywood myth-making” believable, in execution it becomes bizarrely inane.

My biggest issues with the movie are the logical problems…like since Ally is such a great song writer and has come to prominence with Maine’s audience which is rock/country, why does she then turn into a bubble gum pop idol? It makes no sense at all. On top of that, Ally’s music is a steaming pile of shit, just atrociously and comically bad on every level…why do audiences love it so much and why does she even win critical acclaim for it as well?

Now, their might be a way that does make sense, but only in the deep hidden meaning of the film, which I will get into in much more detail in a separate post. There is a deeper message in A Star is Born, and once you crack the code of it, which I think I have done, it becomes pretty interesting (and this message may be entirely unintentional and sub-conscious on Cooper’s part), but that hidden message is so obscured by the rudimentary surface of the movie that it will be totally invisible to most every viewer except the most extreme like me.

As for Bradley Cooper the director, there has been a lot of talk about an Oscar nomination for his directing, his acting and the film. I will say this, Hollywood loves its own, and I would not be surprised if Cooper gets nominated for all three categories and maybe even screenplay too…but he is not an Oscar worthy director…not even close…and is only remotely worthy of an acting nod, and even that is an incredible stretch.

Cooper’s direction is pretty lackluster. He has a distinct liking for using flattering close-ups and a whole lot of flaring light, but the aesthetic, like the story, falls rather flat. Cooper’s direction of actors isn’t much better, as many of the supporting roles (the aforementioned Clay and his limo driving cohorts) are painfully awful.

My biggest question regarding A Star is Born is why? Why make this movie? And why do people, critics included, love it? I don’t get it, I really don’t. I don’t understand why anyone would think this is worthwhile cinema. My one guess as to the commercial and critical success of the film is that in an Age of Turmoil people like their lies to be pretty and their catharsis to be easy and cheap.

In conclusion, as Bradley Cooper’s character Jackson Maine opines, an artist needs to have something to say, sadly, with A Star is Born, Bradley Cooper the director has nothing to say. A Star is Born is little more than old Hollywood nonsense that feeds America’s celebrity addiction.

As a cinematic venture, A Star is Born is all hype. It is a vapid enterprise that gives the pose of depth but is entirely devoid of soul. If you like mainstream manipulative melo-drama in a conventional Hollywood celebrity package, A Star is Born is for you. If, like me, you like your cinema to be more substance than style, you will recognize that this Star is most definitely still-born.

©2018