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I might declare Sung Song Blue the best movie I didn’t see coming this year. Despite looking forward to almost every music biopic, music documentary, and music-based TV show in a given year, this one wasn’t really even on my radar until a couple of weeks before I caught it at the tail end of 2025, before looking ahead to the 2026 movie schedule
I really liked the movie about a Neil Diamond tribute act called Lightning and Thunder, played by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, respectively. One character that I really love is Thunder’s mother, played by Cecelia Riddett. Grandma Stengl, as she’s referred to in the movie, stole every scene she was in, and that’s not the half of it. After watching the documentary that the movie is based on, I love her even more.
I’m A Sucker For Snarky Grandmothers With A Sharp Wit
In the movie, Grandma Stengl pulls no punches. She’s quick-witted and a little surly. I can’t resist characters like that. She’s basically unimpressed with everything, especially her daughter Claire (Thunder) and her daughter’s boyfriend-turned-bandmate-turned-husband, Mike Sardina (Lightning). She’s full of snarky remarks and stinging insults.
Everyone in the movie is great. Jackman is as charismatic as ever as the struggling musician who only exists to make people happy with his music. Hudson is brilliant as his wife and partner, and her performance, one of the best of her career, has been rewarded with a Golden Globe nomination. Still, it’s Riddett as Grandma Stengl who might have been my favorite.
It Took One Moment In The Documentary To Confirm My Feelings
After seeing Song Sung Blue, I set out to watch the 2008 music documentary of the same name that director Craig Brewer based the movie on. I had a couple of reasons why. First, I wanted to see if some of the more unbelievable things about the documentary were true (they are), and second, I wanted to see what the real people were like, especially Thunder, to gauge how great the performances were. Once again, I found that Grandma Stengl, whose full name I later learned was Frances Stengl, stole the show again.
In the documentary, as Mike and Claire’s wedding (which happened at the Wisconsin State Fair) is being discussed, we get our first quote from Grandma Stengl: “Well… it took place in a tent.”
That’s it, at least at first. The look of exasperation, along with the deadpan delivery, is exactly why I loved the character in the movie. She’s not done, though. Even as Mike and Claire’s friends and family are talking about how much fun the wedding was, Grandma Stengl is there to temper things, saying:
Well, anyway, I wasn’t too happy about that one either. Morally, I mean, you know, she’s already divorced and remarried to a divorced man, and, you know, morally, I can’t go along with it.
It might have been true love for Lightning and Thunder (just as critics seem to love Song Sung Blue), but for Thunder’s mom, it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. As in the movie, Grandma Stengl eventually comes around and is happy for her daughter (I think), but it’s biting lines like that in the movie and in real life that make her the real star.
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