Song Sung Blue (2025)

The songs are real diamonds and the dialogue is rhinestones. Song Sung Blue hands Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson some clunky lines, then has them sing Neil Diamond so well you forgive every one. It’s the true story of Mike and Claire Sardina, the Milwaukee couple who became the tribute act Lightning & Thunder, and Craig Brewer nails the scrappy details: the sequins, the homemade stage effects, a first gig that dissolves into a bar brawl. Hudson is the revelation, funny and raw, and she makes Claire’s hardest years feel lived in instead of staged. Jackman plays Mike as a stubborn dreamer who’d rather walk out on a state fair than skip his own songs. Eddie Vedder joining them for Forever in Blue Jeans is pure joy. The second half takes some brutal turns, and at 132 minutes you feel them. A 7.1 because the music and Hudson carry a script that keeps tripping over itself. $886 says you sing the horn part of Sweet Caroline in the car this week, alone, at full volume.

What works: Kate Hudson gives a raw, funny breakthrough turn, and the Neil Diamond numbers, especially with Eddie Vedder sitting in, are a blast.

What doesn’t: The dialogue is clunky and on the nose, and the run of hard turns in the second half makes the long runtime drag.

Who it’s for: Neil Diamond fans, anyone who has ever cheered for a bar band, and people who like their true stories big-hearted and a little corny.