Musical duo’s real diamond of a story

MILWAUKEE couple Mike and Claire Sardina became known in their home state for their Nineties Neil Diamond tribute act, called Lightning and Thunder.

Their story was first told in a 2008 documentary by Greg Kohs and now writer and director Craig Brewer has adapted it into a biopic of the same name, Song Sung Blue (12A), out now at the Regal Picturehouse in Henley.

Hugh Jackman plays Mike and Kate Hudson plays Claire, as they fall in love and follow their dreams. Each had children from previous relationships and both faced horrors, with Mike a Vietnam veteran and Claire becoming an amputee after a car accident.

The film explores the highs and lows of their time together, including a special moment with Eddie Vedder, with Jackman and Hudson singing for real. The film also stars Michael Imperioli, Ella Anderson, Mustafa Shakir, Fisher Stevens, Jim Belushi and others and has a running time of two hours and
12 minutes.

A pitch-perfect music student and a well-to-do student have an ill-fated love affair in Oliver Hermanus’s film The History of Sound (15), also out now.

Lionel (Paul Mescal) and David (Josh O’Connor) both attend the Boston Conservatory and bond over a mutual love of folk music.

It is the eve of America joining the First World War and David is drafted into the US Army.

Years later he writes to Lionel, the two reuniting to collect traditional folk songs on wax cylinders throughout the state of Maine, with long-lasting results.

The film has a running time of two hours and eight minutes.

Continuing are Avatar: Fire and Ash (2D) (12A), Marty Supreme (15) and The Housemaid (15).