Paul Rudd Finally Gets His Moment to Shine in Power Ballad

John Carney's winning musical dramedy gives Rudd the role of his career, and the result is the rare summer film that earns both its laughs and its tears.

By MIGUEL MATEO | JUNE 5, 2026

I first caught Power Ballad at SXSW back in March, and I left the Paramount Theater immediately tweeting about "How to Write a Song Without You" as a potential front-runner for Best Original Song. Months later, that song is still rattling around in my head, which tells you nearly everything you need to know about what John Carney has pulled off here. The Irish director and former musician has always known how to weave music into storytelling in a way that feels lived-in rather than decorative, and this film is his most purely pleasurable achievement since Once.

The setup is deceptively simple. Rick (Paul Rudd) is a wedding singer who has spent years grinding away in the industry, certain he has something real to offer but unable to catch a break. After bonding with former boy-band member Danny (Nick Jonas) at a reception, the two fall into a late-night hotel room jam session that becomes the film's emotional centerpiece. It is one of those scenes that resists the urge to cut away. Carney keeps us in the room, drinking with them, watching Rick find a melody and words, watching Danny lean in as something clicks between them. We feel like participants in the creative process rather than observers, and that intimacy is what makes the rest of the story land.

Rudd has always been charming and funny and accessible, but this film asks more of him than any role I can recall. He is actually singing here, carrying emotional weight through performance in a way that is genuinely challenging, and he meets that challenge with something I would call quiet courage. Rick's frustration at going unrecognized, his need for his work to be seen and appreciated by the people around him, is something Rudd plays without a single false note. It is hard not to see yourself in him. Is it his best performance? After sitting with it, I think the answer is yes.

Nick Jonas, meanwhile, is well-cast in ways that go beyond the obvious. Danny is more or less a version of himself, sure, but Jonas plays the character's inner conflict and easy charisma with a lightness that the film needs. The dynamic between the two leads is where the movie lives, and it would not work if either half of that equation failed to hold up. Jonas holds up.

The original song at the film's center is not for everyone. It has an unapologetic earnestness that some will read as cheesy, and I understand that. But within the world of this movie, in the scenes where it surfaces and builds, it earns every ounce of feeling it asks you to give it. When the film arrives at its closing stretch, the accumulated emotion of everything that came before converges in a way that had people openly crying in the theater while the credits rolled. That is not a small thing to pull off.

Power Ballad is the rare summer movie that is genuinely funny and genuinely moving without sacrificing either quality for the other. It is the kind of film that leaves you in a good mood and stays with you longer than you expect.

TRating: ★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Now in theaters

Directed by John Carney. Starring Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas, Havana Rose Liu, and Jack Reynor. 98 minutes.