Too defensive and earnest about its topic to be either fun or illuminating.

Actors generally make good actor's directors, but Sonny is a mixed bag in that department.

Nicolas Cage isn't the first actor to lead a group of talented friends astray, and this movie won't create a ruffle in what is already an erratic career.

Cage the director makes as many baffling decisions as Cage the actor, but the effect is significantly less entertaining. Sonny is low-lighted by a full-tilt boogie turn from an impossibly brassy Brenda Blethyn that simply took my "Bleth" away.