150 Word Review: 'Song Sung Blue' (2025)
Touchin' me, touchin' you
Sometimes I cover my face with my hands and watch gory horror movie scenes through my fingers. This is how I watched writer/director Craig Brewer’s Neil Diamond-themed musical tearjerker Song Sung Blue. There are multiple scenes so unbearably cheesy, I gasped. And yet, I feel bad mocking this glossy but sincere tale of addiction, dreams, and blue-collar struggle. The film is based on real-life celebrity impersonators in ‘80s Milwaukee who fall in love and team up to sing Neil Diamond songs.
Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are ‘Lightning and Thunder,’ our underdogs. There are highs (they open for Pearl Jam) and rock bottom lows. Perhaps I was so blinded by my love of Wolverine that I never noticed Jackman can’t sing. Hudson can hold a tune, however. This is a spotlight for her, a big-budget opportunity to impress Academy voters with her emotional range. She sobs, she struggles, she loves.
Hugh Jackman can’t sing? Dude, he’s so good, he was ACTING like he can’t sing.
This one genuinely took me by surprise. I went in knowing nothing and I found it very moving (and I'm not even a Neil Diamond fan, particularly).