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Song Sung Blue: The Original Documentary: Savoy Arthouse
Phoenix Theatres Savoy 16 + IMAX
232 Burwash Ave.
Savoy, Illinois
(217) 530-4671
Category
Hours
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”We’re doin’ pretty damn well for two people with a dream, man, I’m telling you.”Last year, for my 50th birthday, I assembled a list of my 50 favorite documentaries of all time, and while the list is alphabetical, I am pretty confident that Song Sung Blue is in actually in the top ten. Many others agree about the quality, including Slamdance Film Festival, where it won BOTH the jury and the audience awards, as well as winning top prizes at half a dozen other festivals.
Roger Ebert agreed, even though he only gave the film three out of four stars. I remember him mentioning that sometimes he felt the star rating wasn’t as important to him as the review. In his review, where he says the film is “a superb marriage of home movies, TV, clippings and posters, and concert footage.”, compares the film to the beloved Hoop Dreams, and explains that no distributor is picking up the film, and he urges distributors to get a screener and pick it up. No distributor ever did, and it remains an overlooked great. (I just noticed that on Letterboxd it was 71 people who have ever logged having seen it — too few to get a star rating.) Roger chose it as the closing night film of the 2010 Ebertfest.
What’s the film about?
Song Sung Blue follows Mike & Claire Sardina of Milwaukee. Together, they perform as the tribute band Thunder & Lightning. Mike performs as Neil Diamond, and Claire performs mostly Patsy Cline songs in the film, although she also is known to perform ABBA and Blondie songs.
Why are you showing this film now?
Well, something is happening that’s only happened to one other of my favorite documentaries is happening to Song Sung Blue. It is now a narrative feature! Hugh Jackman plays Mike Sardina, and Kate Hudson is playing Claire Sardina. The film, also called Song Sung Blue, comes out on Christmas Day, as is poised to be an Oscar contender.