Power Ballad
2026
There’s no director out there with as strict a formula as John Carney. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, I am sure the titles of his Irish pop-centric films will: Once, Begin Again, Sing Street, and Flora and Son. Power Ballad is his new music dramedy. It stars Paul Rudd as a struggling musician and Nick Jonas’s chest hair with a special appearance by Nick Jonas’s thighs. Jonas stretches those acting muscles by playing an ex-boy band member who just can’t stop singing boy band-style music long enough to be taken seriously as a solo act.
Despite that chest hair and those very impressive thighs (why would he NOT play the climactic scene in swim trunks?), the only thing I respect about Nick Jonas is his ability to remain married to Priyanka Chopra. He can only sing one way (boy band), and he recently invaded musical theatre, killing the first Broadway production of The Last Five Years despite the assistance of Adrienne Warren.
Paul Rudd also breaks out of the typecasting mold by playing a genuinely nice guy with effortless charisma. And his last name just happens to be Power. And he just happens to have written a ballad that suddenly shows up on boy band bro’s new album…much to his surprise…and other emotions.
That’s the movie. While there is clearly a soundtrack album with plenty of John Carney-cowritten songs, this movie is about one song. Just one. A song that is basically just a hook. How many times do we have to listen to versions of this song? So many. That song can no more carry an entire movie than Adrienne Warren could carry her two-person musical with Jonas.
Otherwise, it’s a Carney film: nice people getting rough breaks but persevering while playing music in Ireland. Most of Carney’s films are rated R, but this one seems especially out of place with its f-bombs. This could be a fine family affair, except for the oddly unnecessary language. (It was so much an R-rated movie, that a redband trailer played before it!)
Honestly, the Irish actors are the best part: Jack Reynor, Beth Fallon, Peter McDonald, Rory Keenan… They’re all more interesting than our leading characters. And the true protagonist: that darn hook. But, honestly, this all makes it sound worse than it is. It’s okay…nothing more.