Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 132 minutes
Release Date: December 25th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Focus Features
Director(s): Craig Brewer
Writer(s): Craig Brewer / Greg Kohs (documentary)

You two always know what to do.

It’s a story best experienced blind because the flashes of fate intervening in Lightning (Hugh Jackman) and Thunder’s (Kate Hudson) lives—for better and worse—are pretty much always so unbelievable that they must be true. From the phone call to that sharp corner. From the Badger Trolley Bus to sold out theaters. From Alcoholics Anonymous to a psychiatric stay. These soulmates went on a journey together through love, music, and tragedy.

Based on Greg Kohs’ 2008 documentary of the same name, Song Sung Blue‘s subjects are the perfect mix of second chance American Dreamers and soulfully genuine underdogs who own their flaws, fight to be better, and try to always put family first. It’s difficult not to see its underlying themes and recognize that it’s not an accident writer/director Craig Brewer came aboard. It’s truly the perfect double feature marquee pairing for his breakout hit Hustle & Flow.

Jackman is great and Hudson shines to earn that Oscar nomination. It’s probably her best work and their chemistry drives the drama forward with both heavy emotion and jubilant celebration. Brewer collects an entertaining supporting cast too from Michael Imperioli to Mustafa Shakir and Fisher Stevens to Jim Belushi. The real star, though, is Ella Anderson as the proud yet worried daughter who proves to be the only one positioned to understand how it all must end.

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(L to R) Kate Hudson as Claire Sardina and Hugh Jackman as Mike Sardina in director Craig Brewer’s SONG SUNG BLUE, a Focus Features release. Sarah Shatz/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.