Song Sung Blue

If you’re expecting a Neil Diamond biopic, you will be pleasantly surprised. This is the true story of a hard luck Milwaukee couple who performed Diamond tunes.

Hugh Jackman is perfectly cast, of course, as Mike the Diamond “interpreter” who eventually becomes a local legend with his better half, played by Kate Hudson. Hudson shines as Claire, whom Mike meets backstage at a state fair. Mike asks the Patsy Cline-wigged Claire, “You’re a blonde?” and she replies “Oh boy, am I”. Both actors fully commit to the roles and that’s the pure joy of this film. 

In theaters on Christmas Day, this film has a job to do for movie goers and it performs mostly on that. 

It breezily plays like a great night at a bar when the jukebox lands on “Sweet Caroline” and suddenly everyone is family. The tone is breezy, tuneful and built on smiles. I wan't hunting for awards here. I wanted a good time, and for most of its run the movie delivers exactly that.

Midway through, a sudden real-life twist threatens to turn the story into melodrama. I braced myself for eye rolling TV-movie territory, but the filmmakers pull off a smart rebound that keeps the spirit light and the tempo alive.

The stumble comes at the very end. A second tragic beat overlaps what should have been the film’s last pure, joyful performance. Instead of swaying, the audience is left waiting at the end of every single note for something bad to maybe happen. It was followed by a list of familiar tropes that drain the room just when it should be singing

What worked so well at the Freddie Mercury movie Bohemian Rhapsody, is that they altered the timeline a bit so that the movie ended on that inspiring Live Aid performance, leaving audiences exiting in bliss. Since they messed with Mike’s timeline anyway, this would have made this a crowd pleaser that might have reached its own cult status.

In a nutshell: A lot of fun, hitting most of the right notes. Adding an extra song at the end (i.e. Mamma Mia musicals) or blooper songs (i.e., Anyone But You) would have saved this film and probably have started a Tik Tok craze.

Where to see it: In theaters, starting Christmas Day. 

Would it be better with Olivia Colman: I'd cast her in a bar scene and just watch what happens. 

Award potential: Ripe for Golden Globes attention, but nothing more. Jackman and Hudson are perfect in their roles, but where it achieves best is not meant to be award territory.

The Ten Buck Review: Still your best bet for a fun film this season. Worth ten bucks. 

          After the film: Watch the original documentary for free here. 

 

Hamnet

The beauty of a tragic tale is how it takes hold of the heart and refuses to let go. Shakespeare understood that better than anyone.

The grief and mortality that shape the historical novel behind the film draw from Maggie O’Farrell’s own experiences living with the constant danger posed by her daughter’s life-threatening food allergy and anaphylaxis.

Chloé Zhao’s (Nomadland) adaptation of Hamnet understands loss not as something to conquer, but something to carry, with art offering a way to survive it. 

When a (spoiler-free) tragedy happens, William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) turns to his work because it is the only place he believes his sorrow can go. Agnes Shakespeare (Jessie Buckley) endures by refusing to mute her pain or soften it for anyone else.

Jessie Buckley (Women Talking) gives Agnes, known more casually here and historically as Anne Hathaway, a raw and deeply physical presence. Her grief is loud, uncontained and impossible to ignore. Paul Mescal (Normal People, AfterSun) meets her intensity with restraint, playing a man who learns that creating art can both protect him and force him to face what he has lost.

This is not simply a film that “makes you cry.” It is a full sensory passage through love, family and mourning that ultimately opens into something rare and transcendent. Quite poetically, the theater is alive with power here. Hamnet is a story of loss that somehow bursts with life. A reminder that from unbearable grief can come lasting beauty.

In a nutshell: Brilliant. Devastating. Achingly beautiful. A profound act of empathy, Chloé Zhao’s finest work to date and another reminder of why art matters.

Where to see it: In theaters. Don't see it Christmas Day.

Would it be better with Olivia Colman? To thine own self be true.

Award potential: This film will be very competitive with Oscar noms ranging from Picture and Director to Actress and Supporting Actor to Max Richter’s score. It won’t tally as much as Wicked, Sinners and One Battle, which are eligible in everything including song, but it will be a big player in key categories. 

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

Jay Kelly

There is an expectation that comes with a new Noah Baumbach film (Frances Ha, The Squid and the Whale, Marriage Story). You sit down expecting something essential and maybe a little bruising. Jay Kelly arrives with that same promise and a tuxedo full of movie stars and for a while, it looks like it might be his leap into deliverying an elevated crowd-pleaser. Instead, it settles into something more modest and oddly charming. 

George Clooney plays Jay Kelly, one of the last movie stars who still believes in movie stars. He floats through life with an entourage, a displaced family and the kind of privilege that insulates you from ever needing to ask why any of it exists. Clooney is basically playing himself with a Cary Grant tilt, and the film knows it. At one point, a stranger on a train calls him out for exactly that. Clooney fires back like a silver screen relic, insisting that playing yourself is harder than it looks. The movie winks.

Somehow, and oddly, all at once everyone who orbits Kelly seems to quietly question why they are there and whether this life is enough. That is fertile Baumbach territory, but Jay Kelly keeps slipping between tones. One minute, it is a melancholy character study, the next it is a travelogue through Tuscany.

The best stretch is an out-of place middle section on a train rolling through Europe. Adam Sandler delivers another reminder that vulnerability is his secret weapon. This is not another against-type tough guy turn. He is open, fragile and quietly devastating. Laura Dern delivers her lines like an Aaron Sorkin classic. Greta Gerwig (his wife and collaborator), Emily Mortimer (co-screenrighter, BIlly Cruddup, Stacy Keach and the rest of the cast all deliver. It's fun in parts.

And yet, when the film finally asks you to care deeply about Jay Kelly, it runs into trouble. The ending aims for a poetic bookend to the opening shot, complete with a quote that wants to be immortal. It does not quite earn it. Jay remains too insulated, too entitled and too vaguely sketched for the emotional payoff to fully work. You enjoy watching him but you do not ache for he and his Hollywood life.

The comparison that hangs over the film is Sentimental Value, another 2025 film about a famous father and his daughters. That film knows exactly what it is building toward and sticks the landing. Jay Kelly prefers to wander, collecting moments instead of meaning.

In a nutshell: There is plenty to enjoy. The dialogue snaps. Tuscany looks incredible. The scenes, taken individually, are often wonderful.

Where to find it: Watch it in theaters or on Netflix.

Would it be better with Olivia Colman: Absolutely.

Awards potential: Golden Globe nominees Clooney and Sandler both have a shot as the Oscar nominees become 10 not 24, but Sandler feels like the real long-shot contender, especially in supporting actor. The screenplay by Baumbach and Emily Mortimer should also be in the conversation.

The Ten Buck Review: Not what we hoped from all this talent, but it's still worth ten bucks.

2025 in Film + What Best Pictures will Golden Globes choose tomorrow?

2025 has shaped up to be a terrific film year and thank you thank you, because after 2024 I needed this. Around this time a year ago, we were trying to convince ourselves that The Brutalist was a triumph. I adored the first half, then spent the second half wondering if I had wandered into the worst movie of the year by accident. Anora gave us the most trite entry in an auteur director’s collection and Emilia Pérez left me indiferente. I mean, The Substance made the top ten nominees for film that year.

This year, the energy is different. It's a director year. We get to cheer an auteur director delivering one of his finest works with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. Chloé Zhao doth dropped a gutting masterwork in Hamnet. Joachim Trier gifts us an emotionally rich family drama with Sentimental Value. And then there is the unforgettable Train Dreams, which you just have to see right now.

Even stranger, the monster corner of cinema has come to play at an A+ level in a genre I don't usually bother with. Ryan Coogler pulled off a vampire film with Sinners, and Guillermo del Toro brought Frankenstein to life. Meanwhile, Weapons came in screaming as a well-scripted zombie movie to complete the trifecta.

Extra exciting, we still have heavy hitters coming to theaters soon, from Marty Supreme to It Was Just an Accident to The Secret Agent. If last year’s nominee, A Complete Unknown, tried to sneak into this year’s top ten, it wouldn’t stand a chance. Sorry to Deliver Me From Nowhere, tough year for a rock biopic.

There were some big misses. Kathryn Bigelow’s House of Dynamite fizzled on a finale, Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt got schooled and Coppola’s Megalopolis wandered. Still, this is unmistakably a top director year. Also did I mention there is another Avatar coming? Never ever count out James Cameron.

The Golden Globes announce their nominees tomorrow. It’s a new voting body, not your father’s Globes, but here are the films I expect to see on their list, in alphabetical order.

Best Picture, Drama (6)

Frankenstein (Netflix)
Hamnet (Focus Features)
It Was Just an Accident (Neon)
The Secret Agent (Neon)
Sentimental Value (Neon)
Sinners (Warner Bros.)

Fingers crossed: Train Dreams
Spoiler: Avatar: Fire and Ash
Surprise: Is This Thing On?


If you're missing some top dranas, it's because they are running as comedies. I hope you see the humor in that too.

Best Picture, Comedy or Musical (6)

Jay Kelly (Netflix)
Marty Supreme (A24)
No Other Choice (Neon)
One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)
Wake Up Dead Man (Netflix)
Wicked: For Good (Universal Pictures)

Fingers crossed: If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You
Spoiler: Bugonia
Surprise: Song Sung Blue