Slamdance

Song Sung Blue

 (Documentary)

By DENNIS HARVEY

A Corn Filmworks presentation of a Waitwhat production. Produced by Greg Kohs. Executive producer, Andrea Mihalik. Directed by Greg Kohs.
 
With: Mike Sardina, Claire Sardina, Rachel Cartwright, Dana Cartwright, Frances Stingl, Jim Stingl, Don Dardina, Bob Babisch, Tom D'Amato, Art Gompper, Dr. Dave Watson, Mark Shurilla, the Esquires, Ann Knackert, Angelina Sardina.
 

Winner of both the audience and juried docu feature awards at Slamdance, Greg Kohs’ “Song Sung Blue” chronicles the tragicomic love story of a husband-and-wife Neil Diamond tribute act. Dysfunction and delusion run rife through a stranger-than-fiction saga that starts out kitschily amusing, then finds drama and pathos in its subjects’ rather hapless progress. Pic is likely to be compared to last year’s amour-fou doc “Crazy Love,” which couldn’t find an audience despite high hopes and a similar train-wreck fascination. With lowered expectations, there’s no reason this couldn’t gain a following on fest and niche theatrical circuits before smallscreen release.

Already a successful Diamond impersonator when he met fellow divorcee Claire in the ‘80s, Milwaukeean Mike Sardina soon incorporated her into the act; they married at a state-fair gig. As “Lightning & Thunder,” he did the Neil thing (with a fair visual approximation and an excellent vocal one), while she sang big-voiced backup, Patsy Cline songs and so forth. They actually made a living at it until Claire lost her foot in a freak car accident, after which her recovery, ballooning weight on paid medications and bookers’ resistance reduced offers to nil.

But as caught in voluminous home camcorder footage, the couple don’t seem capable of grasping they might actually have to find other ways to make a living. To the frequent shrill rage of Rachel and Dana, Claire’s teenage children by prior marriage, the family fortunes go from bad to worse. The Sardinas simply tell all kids, relatives and well-wishers not to play spoilsport with their “dreams.”

Eventually, they start performing again, but to much-diminished response. Meanwhile, filing for bankruptcy, Mike’s heart trouble, Rachel’s pregnancy at age 17, et al., make the middle-aged pair’s stubbornly pinned hopes for “stardom” seem somewhere between irresponsible and downright irrational. At one low point, Claire insists, “I still think we’re a household name.” It’s hard to separate their mutual love from a mutual dependency that keeps them from making constructive real-world decisions.

Depressing as that might sound, the personalities on display are so distinctive that “Song Sung Blue” manages to be compelling without being too much of a downer, or condescending in its view. Partly that’s because the Sardinas are so comfortable with being videotaped at every moment, flattering or not. Kohs’ affection for his subjects is clear by the genuinely poignant conclusion.

Only quibble with an otherwise well-tuned editorial package is that the timeline of events is sometimes u

Camera (color, mini-DV-to-DigiBeta), Jimmy Sammarco; editor, Nicholas Kleczewski; music, Tony Dekker; music supervisor, Stephanie Diaz-Matos; sound, Vince Caputo. Reviewed on DVD, San Francisco, Feb. 1, 2008. (In Slamdance Film Festival -- competing.) Running time: 87 MIN.