Author/director Craig Brewer‘s “Tune Sung Blue” is an exuberant ode to chasing goals. It’s as deliriously romantic as it’s clear-eyed in regards to the brutal tragedies and struggles its real-life heroes, Mike (Hugh Jackman) and Claire Sardina (Kate Hudson), expertise. In Brewer’s palms, the true story of a husband and spouse who type a Neil Diamond cowl band and discover salvation in music performs like a modern-day Frank Capra film, joyous and painful in equal measures, however in the end celebratory of its characters and beneficiant towards the viewers in its pleasures.
Brewer felt a private connection to the Sardinas’ story from the primary time he encountered it in a 2008 documentary, additionally titled “Tune Sung Blue.” “The reality about unbiased movies is that plenty of films get made which can be by no means distributed,” Brewer advised IndieWire, noting that he made a type of films earlier than his breakout at Sundance with “Hustle & Circulation” in 2005.
“I made my first movie, ‘The Poor and the Hungry,’ for $20,000, and I nonetheless assume it’s one in all my greatest,” Brewer mentioned, “however there weren’t any distributors who needed to select up a black and white DV film with no stars that takes place on the streets of Memphis.”
The expertise of taking “The Poor and the Hungry” round movie festivals made Brewer empathetic to the numerous different artists doing one thing comparable — musicians like Mike and Claire, who performed in bars for peanuts, or filmmakers making the rounds of regional festivals with out the muscle of huge financiers or distributors behind them.
“You go to festivals in all places that aren’t the biggies,” Brewer mentioned. “They’re not Sundance. They’re not Cannes. You’re simply going to anyplace that can settle for your film, and typically you go to those movie festivals, and there are 4 individuals within the viewers, and two of them are programmers who’re simply there as a result of they don’t need you to really feel dangerous. That’s occurred to me so many instances, so I all the time have an actual gentle spot for these sorts of movies.”
Brewer’s need to help different unbiased filmmakers led him to a screening of the documentary “Tune Sung Blue” on the 2009 Indie Memphis Movie Competition. “Being in that screening room with 5 individuals and completely being knocked on my ass, I simply felt that this was an ideal story,” Brewer mentioned. Consistent with the movie’s outsider origins, director Greg Kohs didn’t have a distributor for “Tune Sung Blue” — the one option to get a DVD was to ship Kohs cash so he might personally burn one from his laptop.
Brewer purchased a type of DVDs and started exhibiting it to everybody he might. “For years I might present it to individuals and simply say, if I ever get an opportunity, this might be a film I’d need to make,” Brewer mentioned. “The concept of telling that story gnawed at me for a very long time.”
After Brewer completed “Dolemite is My Title,” he felt the time was proper. “I started to assume, OK, you’re 49 years outdated, the age your dad was when he dropped useless of a coronary heart assault. Sure, you’re being provided jobs that might pay you some huge cash, however perhaps it is best to do one thing meaning loads to you.”
Brewer suspected that the film is likely to be a troublesome promote given a few of the darkish moments within the Sardinas’ lives, and he shortly realized he was proper. “All people on the town mentioned no,” Brewer mentioned. “They noticed the documentary and mentioned, ‘Everybody goes to be depressed by this.’” However Brewer noticed “Tune Sung Blue” as an inspirational underdog story within the custom of “Rocky,” and saved pushing ahead till he received the inexperienced gentle he wanted from Focus — the entire time regarding his film’s protagonist.
“I used to be Mike Sardina and pondering, this man has blind ambition towards one thing that appears fully unattainable,” Brewer mentioned. “The issues by no means cease. And but I’m rooting for him.” Brewer’s affection for the Sardina’s knowledgeable his method to the visible fashion along with his division heads, as he embraced the muddle of on a regular basis life within the manufacturing design however shot all the pieces with heat, welcoming lighting that invitations the viewers into the movie’s world.
“Once I grew up, I’d go to my grandmother Dixie’s home, and there was this hoarder mentality,” Brewer mentioned. “When you get a brand new TV, you don’t throw out the outdated TV — now that turns into a TV stand, and you set the brand new TV on prime of the outdated TV. [Cinematographer] Amy [Vincent] and I’ve a love for that form of way of life, and we felt one thing comparable once we had been engaged on ‘Hustle & Circulation.’ It’s a easy shotgun home in Memphis the place they’re stapling drink holders to the wall, and so they’re coated in sweat, however I would like everyone to need to dwell there due to the thrill that’s occurring.”
Within the case of “Tune Sung Blue,” that pleasure comes from the sheer idealism with which the Sardinas method their music. “I would like the viewers to come back with respect and awe, and to see the magic inside that life,” Brewer mentioned. “Amy and Clay Griffith, my manufacturing designer, actually imagine in our hearts that there’s one thing stunning about these properties and the best way the Sardinas lived, and for those who can take the cynicism out of your self you see it, and it’s highly effective.”
A part of the Capraesque high quality in Brewer’s movie comes from its uniquely American story and the way it faucets into an earnest idealism that yields appreciable emotional results because of Brewer’s real funding within the values he’s exploring; its celebration of making and performing for no different cause than the love of it feels deeply private and truthfully earned. “I believe we’ve misplaced our means as a society somewhat bit,” Brewer mentioned. “When it comes to artwork, we put a lot of our value within the concept of fame and fortune as a barometer of success.”
In taking pictures the Sardinas belting out Neil Diamond songs in dive bars and strip-mall eating places, Brewer needed to seize the purity he felt early in his profession, when he was a younger filmmaker on the skin of the business. “You’ll by no means beat my first premiere,” he mentioned. “It was at a bar known as The Final Place on Earth, and we had a band play beforehand, after which everyone watched my film on a sheet we put up. That was me performing for my group in Memphis, and I felt love and luxury and encouragement.”
The greatness of “Tune Sung Blue” lies in the best way that Brewer recalibrates our expectations and definition of success in step with the sensation he skilled at his first premiere. “For some cause, we have a look at bands like that and say, ‘Oh, you didn’t actually make it, did you?’” Brewer mentioned. “I felt like this was a narrative the place I might say what I imagine, which is that there are plenty of superb individuals and superb tales on this world, and there’s nonetheless greatness within the American dream. We’re understandably in a spot the place we’ve been important of our nation, and there’s a divide, however I believe we’ve misplaced somewhat little bit of the reminiscence of what we’re actually about.”
For Brewer, the important thing was honoring Mike and Claire Sardina with a film that celebrated their lives with the grandeur he acknowledged in them when he first noticed Greg Kohs’ documentary. “It’s essential give them the respect David Lean offers the characters in ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’” Brewer mentioned. “These are larger than life characters, however so is Mike Sardina, and I don’t assume there’s something mistaken with treating him like he’s Omar fucking Sharif.”
“Tune Sung Blue” opens in theaters from Focus Options on Christmas Day.
