August 17, 2026 – I was looking forward to seeing this movie (Apple TV, Prime Video, DVD and Blu-ray) because it is a musical movie written and directed by John Carney, a musician and director who specializes in this genre (Once, Sing Street and Begin Again).

This is a drama about a musician, Rick Power (played by Paul Rudd of the “Ant-Man” movies) who writes a hit song worth millions, but is cheated out of the money and the writing credit by another musician, Danny Wilson (played by real life singer-songwriter Nick Jonas of “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle”).

Danny is a wealthy former boy band member trying to make it on his own (Nick Jonas rose to fame in the boy band The Jonas Brothers) on a trip to Ireland, seeking inspiration for a new album, and coming up short. He meets with Rick Power and hears Rick's half-finished song, “How to Write a Song (Without You)”. Back in Los Angeles, Danny finishes the song, and it becomes the hit single he needed to front his new album.

Back in Ireland, Rick Power hears Danny's version of his song and tries to get Danny on the phone to discuss a deal. Danny, however, denies stealing Rick's song and tells his manager, Mac (Jack Reynor of “Midsommar” to deal with Mac. Rick is told by Mac to not contact him or Danny, or claim any right to the song, or he will be sued.

Unable to prove the song is his, Rick becomes bitter over the whole affair and his whole life starts to fall apart. Even his wife, Rachel (Marcella Plunkett of “Sing Street”) and daughter, Aja (Beth Fallon) seem to doubt that he actually wrote a hit song. Rick, an American musician himself, gave up his musical career to move to Ireland and marry Rachel years before, and he seems to be regretting that.

Rick's mounting anger and frustration causes him to fight with his band mates over the song. He quits his wedding band, “Bride and Groove.” Rick's troubles keep mounting until he finally decides that he must have it out, man to man, with Danny once and for all, or his anger and frustration will eat him alive. This leads to a whole new adventure as Rick and his rowdy friend, Sandy (Peter McDonald of “The Batman”) leave Ireland and head to Los Angeles to confront Danny.

As with John Carney's other musical films, there is quite a bit of comedy to go along with all the drama in this story. Carney co-wrote a number of songs in this movie, including the main song in the movie, How to Write a Song (Without You) with Gary Clark (Carney and Clark are two of the film's music producers). Carney also plays instruments on some songs. Paul Rudd does his own singing in this movie, as does Nick Jonas, who also wrote one of the songs.

The acting is strong by Rudd, Jonas, Peter McDonald, Marcella Plunkett, Beth Fallon and Jack Reynor. Carney's direction is solid, as usual, and this movie has a killer soundtrack. The movie was filmed on location in Ireland. One of the songs in the movie is the Academy Award-winning “Falling Slowly” by the late Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová from Carney's 2007 movie “Once.” Carney has another winning musical movie here. It rates a B.

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