Adapted from a real-life story that once lived as a modest documentary, Song Sung Blue finds writer-director Craig Brewer returning to familiar terrain: underdogs chasing dignity through performance.

The story of Mike and Claire Sardina – a struggling husband-and-wife Neil Diamond tribute act from Milwaukee – was never the stuff of Hollywood movies. Unfortunately, it’s been made into one. Hugh ...

Mike Sardina (played by Hugh Jackman) is tired of his gig as a Don Ho impersonator at an amusement park. One night he decides he is going to be himself or quit. He chooses the latter. But in doing so, ...

New Winterboro head baseball coach Matt Lipham isn’t downplaying anything. Lipham is anticipating success and all-out effort in his first season at the helm at Winterboro High. The head ball coach ...

Sled dogs, like human athletes, eventually slow down. And, again like their human counterparts, when the inevitable moment arrives, they usually aren’t ready to quit. Think of those aging marathon ...

Before I get around to weighing in on Craig Brewer’s “Song Sung Blue,” know this: If you, like me, grew up in a household where your dad sometimes listened to Neil Diamond, it is my professional duty ...

If you do not know the story of Lightning & Thunder, you’d be forgiven for assuming the saga of the Milwaukee-based husband-and-wife Neil Diamond tribute act in the 1990s was the stuff of fiction. But ...

Running time: 132 minutes. Rated PG-13 (thematic material, some strong language, some sexual material and brief drug use). In theaters Dec. 25. If there’s one slam-dunk choice in “Song Sung Blue,” ...

This image released by Focus Features shows Kate Hudson, left, and Hugh Jackman in a scene from "Song Sung Blue." (Sarah Shatz/Focus Features via AP) The story of Mike and Claire Sardina — a ...