{"id":53456,"date":"2026-06-07T13:38:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T17:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=53456"},"modified":"2026-06-07T13:38:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T17:38:01","slug":"power-ballad-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/07\/power-ballad-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Power Ballad [2026]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A wedding singer’s song is stolen by a pop star, unraveling his life in John Carney\u2019s charming Power Ballad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

John Carney has made a career in stories of men and women working through frustrations and inner truths via their music. Whether it be Once, Begin Again, Sing Street, or today\u2019s Power Ballad, Carney finds a sincerity in personalities and the struggles of their insecurities, messes, and misses in life. Power Ballad played at this year\u2019s SIFF<\/a>, but I was unable to catch a showing, and is now in wide release. Co-written with Peter McDonald, John Carney directs a solid film with ease of character and movement. It misses a little spark, but is overall a joyful, emotional film led by another great lead in Paul Rudd<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If John Carney were slightly more cynical, more jaded, the film would lose the charm Carney and Rudd<\/a> give it; an angry turn of the possibility of lost glory. It may make a deeper film, more powerful perhaps, but I\u2019m glad he doesn\u2019t. But those aren\u2019t the films Carney makes. The ease of a lighter film and a more hopeful idea resonate. As it is, Rudd plays a man whose song is stolen by Nick Jonas\u2019s music star, and how it implodes his life. Rudd is Rick Power, who had a minor hit with his band over 15 years ago, but left the road to marry an Irish woman and have a daughter, Aja. He now works as the lead singer in a traveling wedding band, The Bride & Groove, slightly reliving his past glory. At a gig, he connects with Danny Wilson, a younger man trying to find his footing in transitioning from massive boy band success (as seen in archive footage of the Jonas Brothers) to proving himself as his own artist. On an all-nighter of a jam\/drinking session, they share songs they\u2019ve been working on. One of Power\u2019s worms his way in, and Wilson turns it into a hit, without credit to Power. Cue a breakdown as the loss of possible fame crashes into a midlife crisis and a desperate desire to receive credit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Carney keeps it tight and small. While we have our big moments, it isn\u2019t a huge take. This helps and hurts the film. Doesn\u2019t stretch to the point of unbelievable, but also never allows it to get bigger to have more depth. It\u2019s a little thin, feeling a tad incomplete. One more turn, one more moment. It feels like more of Danny Wilson is cut out of the final product, slightly abandoned in the story; in any wrestling over telling the truth, maybe it could be found there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul Rudd\u2019s ease at playing the everyman excels the character, pulling him to his side, or at least in understanding, in most of his moves. Love the interplay of the rest of the band, especially Power\u2019s bestie Sandy, played by a scene-stealing Peter MacDonald (as writer, giving himself the best lines?).\u00a0 No one is larger than life, a hastily sketched plot instrument. They are all real, lived in. Rudd\u2019s sheer skill and likability lift Jonas. Jonas is great when Rudd; they play off, bounce, connect, and have a true connection. Elsewhere, he\u2019s untethered. He\u2019s fine, but can\u2019t get up to the emotional level needed as a pop star teetering on the edge between being lost or greatness of that one great song to show he\u2019s not just a boy band. Something is screaming to be let out of the character, but left off-screen (cue the wrestling of ideas mentioned above).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Carney does incredibly well in finding truth in the characters of people begging for a shift in their lives, wallowing in the life they have. They can be fine, comfortable, happy, but have an itch in the brain, the hanging of the What If? Yes, Power is happy with a loving wife and daughter, in well-written, fully formed relationships. But that hit song from his words hits him and brings back those questions of life shifts. What if this is all there is? Is it enough? Is gone glory gone for a reason? Carney finds frustration and artistry within music. (He brings life to how she shoots musical scenes, zeroing in on the pure emotion.) While this song, How To Write a Song (Without You) isn\u2019t quite the hulking power of Falling Slowly or the incredible soundtrack of Sing Street, you can hear him work through. And it hits hard in the end. Any cracks in the script up to the climax and its consequences are put to the side in how strong the last push is, recontextualizing and bringing it all together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the end, it does what\u2019s needed. It\u2019s a solid film that connects and moves, tells its story twice, easily coming through the ups and downs with a lifted heart and tears in one\u2019s eyes. Yes, I was sniffing as the fade to black due to that very strong final push. If you\u2019ve seen John Carney\u2019s other films (and I suggest you do if not), you know the feel and push of his films; Power Ballad snuggly fits within his oeuvre.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A wedding singer’s song is stolen by a pop star, unraveling his life in John Carney\u2019s charming Power Ballad.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[219,302,698],"class_list":["post-53456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-comedy","tag-drama","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53461,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53456\/revisions\/53461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}