''Hard Luck Love Song'' is a 2020 American romantic drama film directed by Justin Corsbie in his feature

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many filmmakers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

and starring

Michael Dorman Michael Dorman (born 26 April 1981) is a New Zealand actor, best known for his starring roles as Tom Wilcox in '' Wonderland'' (2013–2015), John Tavner in ''Patriot'' (2015–2018), NASA astronaut Gordo Stevens in '' For All Mankind'' (2019� ...

Sophia Bush Sophia Anna Bush (born July 8, 1982) is an American actress. She starred as List of One Tree Hill characters#Brooke Davis, Brooke Davis in The WB/The CW, CW drama series ''One Tree Hill (TV series), One Tree Hill'' (2003–2012), and as Erin Li ...

Dermot Mulroney Dermot Patrick Mulroney (born October 31, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles in a wide variety of genres, including romantic comedy, western, and drama films. After making his film debut in ''Sunset'' (1988), Mulro ...

Eric Roberts Eric Anthony Roberts (born April 18, 1956) is an American actor. He has amassed more than 700 film and television credits since his debut in 1978, making him one of the most prolific English-speaking screen actors of all time. Roberts' career ...

Brian Sacca Brian Sacca (born 1978) is an American actor, writer, and producer from Lockport, New York, Lockport, NY who creates both digital media as well as traditional film/TV content. He is most recently known for playing Robbie Feinberg in ''The Wolf of ...

Melora Walters Melora Walters (born October 21, 1959) is an American actress and filmmaker, best known for her starring roles as Wanda Henrickson on HBO's ''Big Love'' (2006–2010) and Kathy Kone on Hulu's '' PEN15'' (2019–2021). She has frequently collabora ...

and

RZA Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (born July 5, 1969), better known by his stage name RZA ( ) or the RZA, is an American rapper, record producer, composer, actor, and filmmaker. He is the '' de facto'' leader of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, having pro ...

. It is based on the song "Just Like Old Times" by

Todd Snider Todd Daniel Snider (born October 11, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter whose music incorporates elements of folk, rock, blues, alt country, and funk. Early career Snider was born in Portland, Oregon and grew up in nearby Beaverton, wher ...

. It was released in limited release of October 15, 2021. It received mixed-to-positive reviews from film critics.

Cast

as Jesse *

as Carla *

as Louis *

as Rollo *

as Officer Zach *

as Sally "Gypsy Sally" *

as Skip

Casting

Dorman and Bush were cast as the leads of the film on July 16, 2018. Mulroney and Walters were cast in the film on July 23, 2018.

Release

The film premiered at the

Austin Film Festival Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers' creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the c ...

on October 24, 2020. On July 19, 2021,

Roadside Attractions Roadside Attractions, LLC is an American independent production company and film distributor based in Los Angeles, California, founded on July 27, 2000, by Howard Cohen and Eric d'Arbeloff. Lionsgate Films Lionsgate Films (spelled as Lions ...

acquired the distribution rights to the film and set it for an October 15, 2021 release.

Critical reception

The film received positive reviews from IndieWire, the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', ''

Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. Founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy, ''Texas Monthly'' chronicles life in contemporary Texas, writing on politics, the Natura ...

'', ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' and

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American writer. He is a former columnist and film critic for the '' Chicago Sun-Times'', where he wrote for 39 years dating back to 1986 until his departure in 2025. He co-hosted the television s ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

''. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

received based on reviews with average of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Well-acted but fatally self-indulgent, ''Hard Luck Love Song'' is ultimately less cinematic than the Todd Snider song that inspired it."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

reported a weighted average of 56 out of 100 based on 8 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

References

External links

Official Site
* {{IMDb title, 8709338 2020 romantic drama films Films based on songs 2020 directorial debut films 2020 films American romantic drama films 2020s English-language films 2020s American films English-language romantic drama films