Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, we have the musical biopic Song Sung Blue leading the way, as the story of Lightning and Thunder is given the cinematic treatment. That tale of a Neil Diamond tribute group is a lovely option, though this week also features Rental Family, which is also a well-regarded choice. In addition, we also have a pair of Criterion releases, as well as several 4K re-releases. What else is hitting shelves? Read on to find out…
Joey’s Top Pick
Song Sung Blue
Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman are very good in Song Sung Blue, with Hudson especially doing some of the best work of her career. The film is a big-hearted crowdpleaser, to be sure, but her performance is ultimately the biggest selling point, aside from all the Diamond tunes, which are just one hit after the next. I spoke to co-star Jim Belushi here about the movie, while my rave review here began like so:
You have to admire the dedication that a good tribute band has. After all, to do an interpretation of a famous band or musician, one that they must have such respect for, is not easy. It can become their lives, often done for little money. Most toil in obscurity. One such band did not, at least after the documentary Song Sung Blue was made about Neil Diamond tribute band/husband and wife duo, Lightning and Thunder. Their inspirational and tragic love story has now been given the narrative treatment, complete with A-list stars. What could have come off hammy or a bit silly instead remains powerful. Song Sung Blue is a film that sneaks up on you, to the point where I suspect that I won’t be alone in rolling a tear or two before all is said and done.
Song Sung Blue is full of great music, which will make you a fan of Diamond, if you weren’t already, but the heart on display is really what makes it soar. The love of music, as well as the love between a couple, fuels every frame. Beyond that, the joyous highs of making music are inspiring, while the tragic lows the pair go through would be unbelievable if not true. Those developments are as surprising as they would be unlikely if this was straight fiction. Instead, they lend weight to what begins as a light and fun flick. By the end, your heart is full, though the journey is full of pain.
Also Available This Week
All the President’s Men (4K)
A Beautiful Mind (4K)
Ben-Hur (4K)
Deathstalker
Dexter: Resurrection: The Complete First Season (TV)
The Doors (4K)
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
Mean Girls (4K)
Nightcrawler (4K)
Now You See Me, Now You Don’t
Predator: Badlands
Regretting You
Rental Family (Interview here with filmmaker Hikari)
Sisu: Road to Revenge
Criterion Corner
Cloud
From The Criterion Collection: “A gonzo revenge thriller, a darkly comic anticapitalist critique, and a dizzying plunge into the alienated abyss of the internet, Cloud is among the most audacious genre experiments to date from master of psychological tension Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Factory worker Yoshii (Masaki Suda) quits his job to pursue his side business reselling questionably procured items online at outrageous markups. His profits quickly grow—but so does his list of enemies, and the petty grievances of his disgruntled clients and competitors soon take on a terrifying life of their own. With slow-burn precision, Kurosawa constructs a dread-inducing vision of digital depersonalization that ignites into something altogether shocking and unpredictable.”
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Eclipse Series 8: Lubitsch Musicals
From The Criterion Collection: “Renowned as a silent-film pioneer and the man who refined Hollywood comedy with such masterpieces as Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner, and To Be or Not to Be, Ernst Lubitsch also had another claim to fame: he helped invent the modern movie musical. With the advent of sound, and with audiences clamoring for “talkies,” Lubitsch combined his love of European operettas and his mastery of cinema to develop this entirely new genre. These elegant, bawdy films, made before strict enforcement of the moralizing Production Code, feature some of the greatest stars of early Hollywood (Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Claudette Colbert, Miriam Hopkins), as well as that elusive style of comedy that would thereafter be known as “the Lubitsch touch.””
Stay tuned for more next week!