If you’d stepped into a Milwaukee dive bar back in the nineties, there’s a damn good chance you would’ve run into Mike and Claire Sardina. They weren’t just some random tribute act working the weekend shift; they were a local institution, two dreamers who managed to turn a shared obsession with Neil Diamond into a lifelong survival strategy. The new film Song Sung Blue captures that specific brand of Midwestern grit perfectly—the kind of life that’s draped in cheap sequins and hairspray but still smells like a long, honest Tuesday night shift at a neighborhood hair salon. It’s a story about the beauty found in the imitation of greatness and the very real stakes of living a life on the fringes of the spotlight, and honestly, it’s one of the most grounded musical biopics I've seen in years. The movie kicks off in 1987 at the Wisconsin State Fair, which is pretty much the ultimate setting for a story about salt-of-the-earth dreams. We meet Mike, a guy with a massive voice and an even ...