Power Ballad
**Seen at the 2026 Atlanta Film Festival
Since his 2007 breakthrough film, “Once,” John Carney has found a niche as a filmmaker who uses musicians to get to basic human emotions. I need to catch up with his 2023 film, “Flora and Son,” but in “Once,” “Begin Again” and “Sing Street,” his stories deal more with amateur songwriters who haven’t quite hit it big, and thus, are on the fringes- or just beginning their journeys. “Power Ballad” changes up the formula slightly, as both Rick Power (Paul Rudd) and Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas) have had their moments in the spotlight, and maybe that might be why “Power Ballad” doesn’t land as strong as his previous efforts. Having said that, there are two sequences that are peak Carney, and bookend the journeys of both characters.
Rick used to be a touring musician in a band, and then, he met his wife Rachel (Marcella Plunkett) in Ireland, and he settled down, and started a family, as they had a daughter, Elaine (Mae Higgins). Now, continues to play, but as a wedding band doing covers of other people’s music. At the reception we meet the band with, Rick tries to sneak in one of his originals, and it lands with a thud. Overall, he has a good life. One night, they are doing a reception at a castle, and that’s when the band finds itself playing with Danny Wilson. One of the singers from the boy band Impossible, Danny is a friend of the bride and groom, and their performance goes viral. Later, Rick and Danny hang out, and they play some originals for one another; there feels like a genuine connection between the two. Danny is under pressure to deliver a hit from his record label, and none of his seem to work. Six months later, Rick is in a mall, and hears something familiar- it’s his song, sung by Danny. And it becomes a smash hit. But the lack of credit eats at him. Can he prove it’s his, though?
The first sequence that really landed with me was that late night, drunken session between Rick and Danny. Rudd and Jonas are terrific in this film, one as the family man who’s happy with his life, but still has that nagging feeling that he could have had more, and one as a big star who wants to define himself beyond what made him famous. The song that becomes that for Danny, “How to Write a Song (Without You),” is a ballad that means something very different to Rick than it does to Danny. Why didn’t Rick finish it? He could never really work out the bridge. Danny finds a way through it, and the song is a breakthrough. While singer-songwriters are revered in the industry, the truth is some of the best songs in the world happened because of the collaborations between people, much like the couple in “Once” (which is slyly referenced in this film by Carney; you’ll know it when you hear it). Rick’s skeleton structure for the song works beautifully with Danny’s production, but because of the pressure, Danny straight up takes credit for the whole thing. But we feel, from that late night meeting, that Danny does what he did not out of ego, but how he was impacted by Rick’s art; when Rick finds out, and tries to get credit, it’s a shooting star of a success story, so he just looks like a loon. The second sequence is ours, and the character’s, catharsis, and it is a wonderful climax. Is “Power Ballad” as grounded emotionally as Carney’s earlier films? No; it definitely feels like a swing at larger success that might fall flat with a lot of his fans, but I enjoyed it, and honestly? It’s going to be a long wait until I can listen to “How to Write a Song (Without You)” on repeat.
