Generally you simply want a feel-good film and a superb tearjerker, and author/director Craig Brewer delivers each with Tune Sung Blue.
Named for the Neil Diamond music, this drama shouldn’t be going the best way of A Full Unknown or the Springsteen: Ship Me from Nowhere route. As an alternative of a biopic concerning the American singer-songwriter behind “America” and “Candy Caroline,” Brewer explores the facility of Diamond’s music via the stranger-than-fiction story of the tribute band referred to as Lightning and Thunder.
Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson star as this musical married couple, identified offstage as Mike and Claire Sardina. They love one another as intensely as they love Diamond’s music. Becoming, then, that their breathtaking story is stuffed with the emotional highs and lows of a few of his most beloved songs.
What’s Tune Sung Blue about?
Credit score: Focus Options
In Milwaukee, Mike Sardina (Jackman) and Claire Stengl (Hudson) are working as celeb impersonators for state festivals and dive bars. Individually, they carry out requirements in a dusty selection act, however they dream of constructing one thing thrilling of their very own. For them, one good date spirals right into a jam session, a wedding, and a inventive partnership that lasts the remainder of their lives.
Tune Sung Blue charts their story from their meet-cute backstage, via their musical courtship, co-parenting their children from previous relationships, and constructing a tribute band that makes them really feel like rock stars as they carry distinctive life to Diamond’s discography.
The film focuses totally on Mike (who prefers to be known as Lightning) and Claire, their romantic highs and their tragic lows — together with a horrific freak accident that injures her, threatening to derail their band for good. Brewer additionally incorporates a touching subplot into this script concerning the creating sisterhood between step-siblings Angela (King Princess) and Rachel (Ella Anderson). Past that, Lightning and Thunder’s household and story develop to envelope their collaborators and bandmates, permitting for a wealthy tapestry of characters to carry mild and humor to the film’s darkest corners.
Kate Hudson is totally extraordinary in Tune Sung Blue.
Credit score: Focus Options
For a lot of her profession, Hudson has been taking part in some variant of the dazzling woman, in such motion pictures as 200 Cigarettes, Virtually Well-known, Lose A Man in 10 Days, and an array of different rom-coms. Blonde, bouncy, and witty, she’s endlessly youthful and radiant, even when going through tragedy or a smirking manchild. In Tune Sung Blue, Hudson assumes a extra mature function, whereas sustaining a definite shimmer.
Claire shouldn’t be a glamorous get together woman or a classy metropolis socialite. She’s a middle-aged mom of two who loves Patsy Cline songs and sporting sequins. Right here, Hudson is radiant, the best way of small-town girls who do not have designer garments and customized jewellery however malls and thrift retailer finds, but they shine all the identical. As she sings her coronary heart out, her cheeks are rosy and pronounced due to her large smile. Her eyes sparkle alongside together with her knitwear. And her Midwestern accent is the cherry on high. Hudson makes Claire not some fantasy of girl, however an actual girl. I acknowledged her. I grew up round girls like this, who knew horrific hardship and defiantly selected pleasure repeatedly. They have been courageous and loving and, at instances, heartbroken. That’s what Tune Sung Blue is about.
Mashable High Tales
Props to Brewer; he lets this feel-good movie get actually darkish, as Claire’s accident threatens to smother her interior mild. Racked with ache, self-doubt, and anger, Claire turns into unrecognizable to her husband and children. And thru this, we witness a wedding pushed to its breaking level. Generally, nevertheless, it may be a shared ardour that may save us. And for the Sardinas, it was Neil Diamond.
There’s an class in that, as Diamond’s songs can weave bittersweet tales, however what resonates with us is the choruses which can be so radiantly joyful that strangers throughout a bar will take part with “Bah bah bah!” Good instances by no means felt so good, certainly.
Hugh Jackman gives a daring efficiency in Tune Sung Blue.
The place I swiftly fell for Hudson’s Claire, Jackman’s Lightning was a tougher promote. Admittedly, for the primary act, I used to be postpone by his bravado. Lightning is a star impersonator with the ego of a rock star and the entitled angle that usually accompanies it. Jackman’s portrayal of this wannabe hit me initially as too broad, as if he was again on Broadway taking part in to the balcony seats.
Nonetheless, as Tune Sung Blue performed on, I understood. This wasn’t a miscalibrated efficiency. The place everybody else within the film is aiming for a softer, extra grounded tone, Jackman is knowingly doing an excessive amount of, as a result of Lightning was a person who demanded to be seen and heard. This theatricality dangers taking part in as insincere. However as a result of Jackman by no means relaxes this tone, it turns into clear he sees Lightning as dreamer who’s each second being the frontman he desires to be. That is how he lives the dream.
As soon as that hit me, Tune Sung Blue grew to become a tiny bit sadder. Not a lot as a result of this tribute band would not hit Neil Diamond’s stage of fame. The movie celebrates inventive victories, even minor ones, with deep sincerity — as a result of the expression and group is the purpose. I felt unhappy as a result of I had misjudged Lightning, simply as many within the first act did. His is an underdog story, bittersweet however inspirational. Jackman performs it to the rafters so we’d perceive this man’s sheer moxie and dedication.
Tune Sung Blue’s supporting forged is stellar.
Like in Brewer’s comedic biopic Dolemite Is My Identify, Tune Sung Blue is sensationally forged. King Princess brings a touching fragility as Lightning’s daughter, whereas Ella Anderson brings a burning resilience as Thunder’s. Michael Imperioli is surprisingly humorous as a annoyed Buddy Holly impersonator, however charming as Lightning’s bandmate. Jim Belushi brings a working-class sensibility as an unlikely dreamer, serving to produce Lightning’s present, whereas Mustafa Shakir and Fisher Stevens carry coronary heart whereas filling out the Sardinas’ rich-in-friends world.
All this makes for a feel-good film that may be jarringly intense, as a result of the dangerous instances can come out of nowhere. (C’est la vie!) However like a fantastic Neil Diamond music, Tune Sung Blue will discover its manner into your coronary heart, the place it would linger.
Via considerate storytelling, an impeccable forged, and a well chosen soundtrack that locations the performances of Diamond’s songs thematically, Brewer creates a drama that’s uplifting, heart-wrenching, and wondrous all of sudden. Carry tissues. Carry buddies. And let Tune Sung Blue hit you, rattle you, and depart you smiling.
Tune Sung Blue was reviewed out of AFI Fest. The film is now in theaters.
UPDATE: Dec. 18, 2025, 2:14 p.m. This overview was first printed on Oct. 27, 2025, as a part of Mashable’s protection of AFI Fest. It has been up to date to mirror its theatrical premiere.
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