Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas rocked SXSW with “Power Ballad,” the latest music-themed comedy film from “Once” and “Sing Street” director John Carney.
The movie follows Rick Power (Rudd), a wedding band singer who stumbles into a late-night jam session with former boy band star Danny (Jonas) and reignites his passion for songwriting. But Danny leaves not only with a newfound motivation — he lifts one of Rick’s songs, turns it into a No. 1 hit and claims it as his own. Rick then embarks on a quest to reclaim the recognition he deserves, sacrificing everything he loves in the process.
The film features several drunken duets between Rudd and Jonas after the former offers the latter some of his marijuana. If there’s one takeaway from the film, Jonas put it like this: “Be careful who you share a blunt with.”
The Jonas Brothers singer behind solo hits like “Jealous” and “Close” said he boarded “Power Ballad” after he heard Carney was writing a script about “a wedding singer and a former boy band member turned solo artist trying to find himself.” In a nod to the obvious parallels between his character and himself, Jonas quipped: “I said yes!”
“Outside of the more obvious themes … one of the things that I was really drawn to is this idea of how many rooms I’ve been in as a songwriter where it could have gone one way or the other — success and failure and everything between — and moments where your character is called into question,” he added during the Q&A portion of the premiere. “Having been in this business for 20-plus years, it’s wild to see how many people have gone down that path where they come out the other side with success and their friends still around them, and some that come with success and lose everybody in their life.”
Rudd said he was attracted to the film because, like Rick, he is the father of a teenage daughter, and he is a “huge music fan.”
“This is a guy who has a real desire to do something and express himself and has a dream,” he said. “There are certain things that are unrealized, and he’s faced disappointment. These are things that are very relatable, so the character really meant something to me.”
Before the film rolled, Carney was welcomed to the stage by an SXSW programmer who proclaimed, excitedly, “John Carney is the shit!”
“If my mother heard that expression, she wouldn’t have understood the irony of this,” the director replied. “She’d be like, ‘Why is she calling my son shitty?’ I accept this very modern compliment.”
Introducing the movie, Carney warmed Texas hearts by giving a heartfelt shoutout to Austin legend Richard Linklater. “He’s the reason that I’m a filmmaker,” he said. “Not in terms of inspiration, but in terms of giving people permission to make films.”
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