Skip to content
Power Ballad movie review

Highly Suspect Reviews: Power Ballad

POWER BALLAD MOVIE REVIEW


Paul Rudd’s charisma knows no bounds. It’s very evident in the newest film, Power Ballad, by John Carney (Once, Sing Street) where he plays a former rocker, now a moderately successful wedding singer in Ireland. One fateful wedding, Rick Power (Rudd) meets former boy-band superstar Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas) during an impromptu performance and the two hit it off. As they bounce ideas off each other, Rick plays one song that Danny gravitates towards. Six months later Rick realizes that Danny has stolen his song which has launched his comeback that he’s been trying unsuccessfully to accomplish for years. What follows is an extremely affable story of one man trying to grasp the credit he deserves and another reaping the benefits. John Carney beautifully weaves a story of likable characters that are desperately trying to prove themselves every step of the way. It’s a funny, sweet story that showcases Rudd’s insane chemistry with seemingly any other actor on screen and a deep appreciation of what it means to write a song from the heart. Listen as Drew, Beau, Nathan, and Wright discuss this wonderfully splendid tale of two musicians trying to prove themselves every step of the way.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE/TRAILER

DIRECTED BY: John Carney

STARRING: Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas, Havana Rose Liu, Jack Reynor, Peter McDonald, Marcella Plunkett, Sophie Vavasseur, Beth Fallon

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

Wright Sulek (The Other Boss, Trash in the Can, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, One Man’s Trash, Screener Squad)

Wright hails from the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His passion for filmmaking brought him to Austin to study and make movies. Since then he’s had his hand in acting, writing, and directing his own short films with numerous like-minded film geeks he’s met along his journey. His newest interest has brought him into the podcasting world. He co-hosted a few different movie related podcasts such as ‘And Now This’ and ‘The Match Cut’. He currently co-hosts with longtime friend, Eric Samaniego, where they talk shop about the grimiest, trashiest, lost gems of movies on their show, ‘Trash in the Can’. Wright also guests and hosts reviews on Screener Squad and Highly Suspect Reviews as well as co-hosts Digital Noise with Chris Cox. As of 2024, Wright has now been inducted into the Austin Film Critics Association as well as co-owns the One of Us network with Chris Cox.

 

Nathan Flynn (Screener Squad, Highly Suspect Reviews)

Nathan Flynn is the resident goofball of OneofUs.Net, often found overly caffeinated, slightly stoned, and ready to unleash the hottest takes imaginable. As the resident Letterboxd Lunatic, his movie opinions are as bold as his love for Top Gun: Maverick — a film he considers less of a movie and more of a religion. When he’s not passionately defending his latest cinematic obsession, Nathan manages a comedy club in downtown Austin, where he’s somehow avoided being heckled… so far. Around here, he’s usually the punching bag, but hey, someone’s gotta do it.

 

Beau Paul (Highly Suspect Reviews, The Original Gentlemen, Screener Squad)

Beau Paul is an Austin native, an actor, and a writer. Sometimes all at once! Previously he has attempted to be an internet entertainer (the funny ha-ha kind, not the naked moneymaking kind) at Spill.com, and now here on OneOfUs.net. You can read his pithy witticisms and the retweeted material of funnier, cleverer people on Twitter or Facebook, and can buy him stuff on Amazon.

 

Drew Tinnin (Screener Squad, Highly Suspect Reviews, Deliberations of Doom)

Drew Tinnin is a Rondo Award nominated interviewer and critic who has worked at SiriusXM’s Fangoria Radio and Fangoria magazine in NYC, as well as the London-based Dazed Digital. Currently a regular contributor to the Dread Central Network, he’s excited to join up with some old friends and other film fans on One of Us as a new contributor to Screener Squad.

 

You can subscribe to the Highly Suspect Reviews and Screener Squad series of podcasts on iTunes, Spotify, and more, or use our RSS feed on whatever podcast service you use: https://oneofus.net/feed/theatrical-movie-review-podcast/ and please leave us a review!

Please think about becoming a paid subscriber to Oneofus.net, support our huge network of shows, and get access to tons of bonus shows and videos in our forums! We cannot keep this site going without support from our listeners. For added information about being a subscriber, the benefits, and the forums, please go here.


Subscription Levels



Dollicious Ad 2022

Knomad ad