One filmmaker who truly is an auteur (for those who use such words) is John Carney. An auteur is a director whose singular vision becomes synonymous with their films. Audiences recognize their unique visuals, typical plots, cinematography, colour palettes, dialogue, or other cinematic elements. Essentially, talking about auteurs is a way of talking about film. John Carney is no exception to the theory of auteurs. His musical films are recognizable as Carney originals — usually featuring at least one embittered, disillusioned musician fed up with the state of music in their lives, not to mention the world in general. But it’s not the look of his work that stands out the most, it’s the sound. He’s known for originally being a member of the Irish band The Frames, for poignant melodies, and earnest performances from actors singing with their own voices. Music that feels good to listen to, sometimes written by the director himself. In his latest Certified Fun (I’ve decided my film metric is Certified Fun or Certified Not A Good Hang) musical dramedy, Paul Rudd is playing against type as world-weary wedding singer Rick, who can’t catch his big break. One night at a particularly fancy wedding, he meets former-boy-band-member Danny played by Nick Jonas, and they sing a duet of Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish.” Chemistry established, Danny hosts their late-night, alcohol-fueled jam session in his cavernous hotel suite. Rudd and Jonas are believable as musicians. The way they bring fresh perspectives to each other’s songs-in-process — suggesting edits to lyrics, swapping strategies for creating appeal. They encourage each other to keep going, even when it seems stupid and futile. It’s a great scene. It’s not a spoiler to say (it’s in the trailer), one of the songs Rick shares in his vulnerable, drunken stupor ends up on the radio with Danny’s name as the artist. While the film itself just recently left theatres, we do have the soundtrack available on Hoopla here, and the songs were co-written by Carney. If you’re a fan of such things as soundtracks, may I direct you to this blog post, by the way?