Song Sung Blue is a refreshing musical biography that brings back memories of such 1950s films as 1952’s With a Song in My Heart with Susan Hayward as Jane Froman, 1953’s So This Is Love with Kathryn Grayson as Grace Moore, 1955’s triumvirate of Love Me or Leave Me with Doris Day as Ruth Etting, Interrupted Melody with Eleanor Parker as Marjorie Lawrence, and I’ll Cry Tomorrow with Hayward again as Lillian Roth, as well as 1957’s The Helen Morgan Story with Ann Blyth in the title role.

Those films as well as such later films as 1980’s Coal Miner’s Daughter with Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn and 1985’s Sweet Dreams with Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline were about legendary star singers. Hayward (twice), Parker, and later Lange were nominated for Oscars for their performances and Spacek won for hers.

Song Sung Blue for which Kate Hudson is nominated for a Best Actress Oscar is not about a legend but about a couple of ne’er-do-wells, Hugh Jackman and Hudson who play Mike and Claire aka Lightning and Thunder, the lead singers in a Neil Diamond tribute band.

When we first meet her, Hudson is a Patsy Cline imitator, but she soon joins down-on-his-luck recovering alcoholic Jackman to form Lightning and Thunder in 1990s Milwaukee.

The film provides plenty of music with Jackman and Hudson both at the top of their game, recreating Diamond’s most famous and not so famous songs. Both have highs and lows with Jackman self-medicating to avoid having to see a doctor and Hudson going through extreme depression after suffering a horrific accident.

The chemistry between Hudson and Jackman is some of the strongest on screen this year, surpassed only by Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in Hamnet. Ironically, in both cases, as with those of Hayward, Parker, Spacek, and Lange, none of whom had chemistry with their leading men in their films, neither Jackman nor Mescal were Oscar nominated, Jackman due to stiff competition and Mescal possibly due to category confusion.

Their love story is as central to the film as their excellent vocals, but the film also puts a strong focus on family and friends. Ella Anderson and Hudson Henley (no relation to Kate) are outstanding as Hudson’s children and King Princess is equally fine as Jackman’s daughter from previous marriages. Michael Imperioli, Fisher Stevens, Jim Belushi, and Mushaka Safir as Jackman’s friends, Shyaporn Theerakulstit as the Thai restauranter who gives Jackman a job, and John Beckwith as Pearl Jam singer, Eddie Vedder also provide marvelous supporting work.

The Focus Feature film was directed by Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) based on Greg Kohs’ 2008 documentary of the same name. It’s on Blu-ray from Universal.

Rental Family, directed by Japanese born U.S. based actress turned director Hiraki (Miyazaki Mitsuyo) is classified as a comedy but is more of a social drama about an out-of-work American actor in Japan.

Brendan Fraser in his best role since his Oscar-winning performance in 2022’s The Whale plays the actor who takes a job working for a Japanese rental family company, a business unique to Japan that began in the 1980s and has grown over the years to hundreds if not thousands throughout the country. The one in the film is in Tokyo.

The business exists to provide users with emotional support when needed. Fraser’s first assignment is to pose as the American fiancé of a woman at her make-believe wedding. The woman is entering into the fake marriage to keep her family from learning that she is really entering into a same-sex marriage.

The bulk of the film centers on Fraser’s relationships with two other people – the daughter of a single mother who needs a husband to be able to register her mixed-race daughter at a prestigious school and an elderly actor for whom he poses as an interviewer to keep the forgotten performer’s spirits up as he battles dementia.

Fraser is very good in this role, even better than he was in The Whale. He is given marvelous support, especially by Shannon Mahina Gorman who received several award nominations and wins for Best Juvenile Performance for her portrayal of the girl who thinks Fraser really is her long lost father.

Others providing memorable supporting work are Takehiro Hira as Fraser’s boss at the rental family agency, Mari Yamamato as a fellow rental family worker, and Akira Emoto as the elderly actor.

It’s on Blu-ray from Searchlight.

Wesley Ruggles’ 1938 musical, Sing You Sinners, is the best of several Bing Crosby movies given a long overdue Blu-ray release by Universal.

Bing is a bit of a jerk in the film as he’d rather loaf than work while his hard-working brother Fred MacMurray brings home the bacon. Donald O’Connor is their teenage brother, and marvelous Elizabeth Patterson is their mother with Ellen Drew as MacMurray’s lovely fiancé.

The only thing the boys are good at is singing, which they do extremely well, including MacMurray who is better known for his dramatic work.

Warner Bros. Video has released 4K UHD upgrades of two of their most popular films.

William Wyler’s 1959 MGM film, Ben-Hur, which was the first film to take home 11 Oscars, has never looked or sounded better on home video. Star Charlton Heston participates in the film’s commentary track from a previous release.

The film is on two 4K UHD discs with supplementary features provided on a separate Blu-ray.

Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 film, All the President’s Men, features a combination of previously released supplements as well as a couple of new ones all on the same 4K UHD.

The real-life Bob Woodward, Carl Benrstein, and Ben Bradlee appear along with Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, and Jason Robards who played them in archival footage.

Happy viewing.