Power Ballad

John Carney has got to be one of the most underrated Directors out there.

His particular brand of music and romance has always struck just the right note if you’re in the mood and each film has retained his inimitable essence whilst also feeling distinct from each other.

His latest, Power Ballad, is another masterstroke if you like his films but perhaps doesn’t quite challenge Sing Street, Once or Begin Again for the top spot in his oeuvre.

The story here focuses on Rick Power (yes, the film title has an extra layer of meaning) fronting a wedding band in middle age having once been a budding rock star. At one wedding, a boyband star gone solo is a guest and the two have a meet-cute jam session.

That session yields a song that said star, Danny, turns into a global smash.

There’s endless depth to the story. With real world parallels, a music industry commentary, the nature of success, chasing dreams, the meaning of a song, the process of writing music, how a song becomes successful, the nature of fame and going solo there’s a lot of different themes that are lovingly explored.

It’s a moving story and comes with Carney’s usual mix of great music and sentiment.

That combination is the only divisive element with his films. Music is often performed in full sequences (but ‘live’ as opposed to a song-and-dance musical number) and he can go heavy on the sentiment stuff.

If that doesn’t tick a box, fair enough, but for those on the wavelength this is a really lovely exploration of those above themes and many more and makes for another excellent musical-adjacent original film.

He just has such a great hold on the story and what he wants to present and it's played perfectly by Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas.

Don't let this be another film that adds to Carney being merely 'underrated' by those only in the know. He deserves to be a more well known name and you deserve this kind of quality music film.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️