SONG SUNG BLUE**

I have no idea why Kate Hudson has been nominated for an Oscar for her performance in SONG SUNG BLUE other than that she seems really nice, is probably very popular in Hollywood, probably should have been nominated for her work in ALMOST FAMOUS, and is unlikely to ever get a meaty dramatic leading role like this again.  Her performance is good, don't get me wrong.  And it's by far the best thing in this deeply mediocre musical biopic.  But man, what a mid film this is. 

Hudson and Hugh Jackman star as a husband and wife musical tribute act to Neil Diamond working the small bar circuit in small-town 1980s America.  Of course, this being a biopic, we know something super-bad is gonna happen, and when it does we get to see some of Hudson's talent in depicting a strong but angry and frustrated woman at risk of losing herself.  And then of course we see the redemption or recovery arc before Chekhov's medical check-up strikes again.  Along the way, we see lots of Neil Diamond songs performed, although it's kind of a running joke that Jackman's character really doesn't want to perform Sweet Caroline because there's so much more to Diamond's catalogue than that. 

Writer-director Craig Brewer (HUSTLE AND FLOW) moves through the story in a fairly conventional and plodding manner. I am really not sure why this needs to be a film.  Hudson seems to be having a good time. I liked the 80s fright wigs and bedazzled outfits. But there was nothing that really gripped me or got me. Maybe because Jackman seemed to mechanical and... tired. 

SONG SUNG BLUE is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 132 minutes. It was released in the USA on Christmas Day 2025 and in the UK on New Year's Day 2026.

WONDER WHEEL

WONDER WHEEL is no BLUE JASMINE, but it's still far better than the mediocre rote films that we've come to expect from late era Woody Allen, elevated by a superb performance by Kate Winslet, in one of her now trademark performances as a disappointed weary middle-aged woman. She plays Ginny, wife of the man (Jim Belushi) who runs the Coney Island ferris or wonder wheel.  She has a mid-life crisis affair with a younger aspiring playwright and lifeguard called Mickey played by Justin Timberlake. This allows her to indulge her nostalgia for her aspirations to being an actress in her youth - but also self-consciously to act.  She rehearses telling him that she's older and married.  She claims that her real life as a waitress is performative. The meta-layers of performance - of being alienated from reality - are heart-breaking.  

The heart-break is compounded because we know that the affair means far less to Mickey than to Ginny, as is evident when he starts seeing Ginny's stepdaughter Carolina - a fragile and vulnerable girl played by a superb and much under-rated Juno Temple. Its here that the movie suffers - with the Pygmalion attempt at education of Carolina by the pretentious Mickey and the usual Allen moral lassitude for men who go with their dicks lead them.  But the film recovers remarkably in its final act - reminiscent of CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS - featuring a tour de force scene from a drunk and delusional Ginny as she is confronted by Mickey and then her husband. 

This film is worth watching for Vittorio Storaro's candy coloured, sunlit orange photography and the period costumes alone. Woody Allen's crowded claustrophobic Coney Island and the wonder wheel become oppressive despite their beauty.  Altogether there's something almost Sirkian and expressionist about the way this film is shot that matches Ginny's conception of herself as being in a melodrama. 

WONDER WHEEL is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 101 minutes. The film is on global release. 

UNDERDOG - piss-poor live action kids flick

Despite featuring several very good actors (notably Peter Dinklage as the evil villain), Frederik du Chau's (RACING STRIPES) live action kids flick, UNDERDOG is a tedious watch. The concept, nicked from a 1960s network TV showm is that UNDERDOG is a genetically modified Superdog. The execution is lo-fi, lo-imagination, lo-laughs. The biggest problem is that the movie doesn't know whether it wants to be a scabrous spoof or not. Kids deserve better.

UNDERDOG was released in 2007 and 2008 and is available on DVD.