creative process

POWER BALLAD: what (and who) makes a hit song?

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Photo caption: Nick Jonas and Paul Rudd in POWER BALLAD. Courtesy of Lionsgate

In the delightful Irish dramedy Power Ballad, the small-time wedding singer Rick (Paul Rudd) finds himself in an all-night jam with a no-longer-popular boy band star Danny (Nick Jonas). Weeks later, Danny revives his career with a monster hit. Did he steal the song from the Rick? And, if so, what can Rick do about it?

Power Ballad is the latest from John Carney, writer-director of Once, Sing Street and Flora and Son. Those three Feel Good movies all feature penniless Dubliners who discover themselves by harnessing their songwriting talents. Power Ballad includes those elements, but, here, Carney’s exploration of the creative process is more nuanced.

Sure, the core of the song is inspired by Rick’s most heartfelt reflections. But, Carney lets us see that it takes more than melody and lyrics to make a hit; Danny has the charisma and sense of performance that Rick doesn’t, along with the drive, discipline and appetite for grueling hard work that Rick can’t quite harness. And, having tasted the big-time success that Rick can only vaguely imagine, Danny is more desperate.

Carney avoids the potential cornball endings, and lands Power Ballad with an ingeniously satisfying resolution.

The original song in question, How to Write a Song (Without You), composed by Carney and his longtime collaborator Gary Clark, is very good and is plausible as a future jukebox classic. The performances of the real Billboard hits covered by Rick’s wedding band are very, very fun.

Paul Rudd, always so relatable, is very good as an American rocker who stepped off the fast track when he fell for an Irish girl on tour, and scrapes by modestly as a transplant in Dublin. He’s deeply in love with his wife and teenage daughter, who tolerate his very non-rock star Dad behaviors.

I was very impressed with Nick Jonas’ performance as Danny. Although he has 99 screen credits, they’ve almost all been Jonas Brothers videos, TV sitcoms and content in the Night at the Museum and Camp Rock franchises. Although he appeared in the shallow and clumsy (not Nick’s fault) 2019 version of Midway, he hasn’t played many complex adult characters. Although you might not think it a stretch for him to play a former boy bander, Jonas shows Danny to be surprisingly complicated, in the throes of his own identity crisis, an often weak man propelling himself forward with an ill-fitting, needy ambition.

I saw Power Ballad at the closing night of the SLO Film Fest, where it was very well-received. It also played at the SFFILM Festival. It opens in theaters this weekend, and it’s an audience-pleaser.

IN WATER: waiting for Hong Sang-soo

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Photo caption: Ha Seong-guk, Kim Min-hee and Shin Seok-ho in IN WATER. Courtesy of Cinema Guild.

In Hong Sang-soo’s In Water, an actor-director (Shin Seok-ho) is plunging his savings into a short film that he is directing. He rents a three-bedroom house on the seaside for a week to house himself, an actress (Kim Min-hee) that he’s worked with before and a cinematographer (Ha Seong-guk) that he and the actress don’t know. The problem is that the director still doesn’t know what his film will be about.

The three walk along the shore and eat take-out food, while the director keeps delaying the shoot, stalling until his has an idea. The actress and the cinematographer, with more patience than the audience, are trying to figure out what’s going on. Finally, the director has a mundane encounter with a local that he replicates in his film, and tops it with a quietly dramatic statement about his own artistic malaise. In scenes that portray the director’s indecision, Hong Sang-soo intentionally blurs the camera (see image below) and plays tinny music.

Kim Min-hee, Ha Seong-guk and Shin Seok-ho in IN WATER. Courtesy of Cinema Guild.

Writer-director Hong Sang-soo cranks out little, intimate, clever films like Woody Allen did in his heyday and is kind of his own genre. As he demonstrates in Yourself and Yours, Claire’s Camera, Walk-up and The Woman Who Ran, Hong is a droll observer of human behavior. There’s usually a movie director character and lot of drinking and eating in his films. He checks the boxes here, with meals and snack runs and a shoju binge.

I always enjoy watching Kim Min-hee, she of the riveting performance in The Handmaiden. She’s a huge star in Korea, but she’s in an off-screen relationship with Hong Sang-soo, and she’s been showing up in his little movies.

I’ll watch any Hong-Sang-Soo movie, but I don’t think this one pays off. Even though it’s only 60 minutes long, I can only recommend In Water for hardcore Hong Sang-soo fans. I do recommend that you sample Hong Sang-soo by watching his You, Yourself and Yours, which I tagged as “Buñuel meets Seinfeld”; you can find it titled Yourself and Yours streaming on AppleTV and YouTube.

GEOFF MCFETRIDGE: DRAWING A LIFE: creativity without self-indulgence

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Photo caption: Geoff McFetridge in GEOFF MCFETRIDGE: DRAWING A LIFE. Credit: Andrew Paynter; courtesy of Gravitas Ventures.

The thoughtful documentary Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a Life examines a great artist who is decidedly not tortured. No ear-slicing, overdoses or bratty rampages here, just a guy whose disciplined lifestyle and commitment to his family subvert the stereotypes of an artist fueled by torment.

Where’s the interest in a movie about someone who creates without turbulence? This is a guy who is unusually fierce with both his artistic and family lives. He refuses to compromise his art; his attitude is, take it or leave it (although, as a good Canadian, he is polite about it). Just as tenaciously, he safeguards his family time.

At one point in Drawing a Life, McFetridge makes it explicit. He sees it as too easy to make everything else – good behavior, responsibilities – subservient to art. The achievement is to do great art while maintaining life balance.

You may not know McFetridge’s name, but you’ll recognize his art. McFetridge has exhibited in major cities around the world, collaborated with filmmakers like Spike Jonz and Sofia Coppola, and designed for brands like Apple, Hermes, Vans and Patagonia.

Director and co-writer Dan Covert has filled Drawing a Life with McFetridge’s art, and viewing the film is to be immersed in the art. The editing, by Covert and co-writer Eric Auli, is magnificent. Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a Life won the 2023 Audience Award for Documentary Feature at SXSW.

Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a Life opens in NYC theaters tomorrow, in LA next week and digitally on July 2.