Sing Street - directed by John Carney
Screenplay: John Carney
Music Score by: Various artists and original songs by Gary Clark and John Carney
Cinematography: Yaron Orbach
Edited by: Andrew Marcus, Julian Ulrichs
Running Time: 106 minutes
Rated: M - Profanity
No woman can truly love a man who listens to Phil Collins - this guy won't be a problem.
So says Jack Reynor's Brendan to his younger brother Conor who has fallen instantly in love with a girl so completely that he now must form a band to make the truth out of the line he delivered to her in order to obtain her phone number.
'I'm in a band' - is there a more effective line?
Apparently not and had it failed we wouldn't have a movie here.
That would be a tragedy as "Sing Street" carries on director John Carney's amazing run that started with "Once" and proceeded to the even better "Begin Again"
And as charming as those movies are the third time turns out to truly be the charm.
"Sing Street" is utterly delightful, completely captivating and one of the best movies of the year without a shred of doubt.
(Carney has directed two other films but I haven't seen them and they are not musically themed)
It is 1985 and Conor (brilliantly played by Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is forced to move to a new Catholic school.
He runs into trouble with both the headmaster and a bully but out of it makes friends with the diminutive and nerdy Darren.
When Conor sees an attractive young woman standing outside a home for young women opposite the school gates Darren informs him that she is a little older and doesn't go to the school or indeed associate with anyone from it.
Instantly smitten Conor goes right on over and talks to her.
When she reveals that she wants to be a model he announces that she should be in the music video that he is shooting with his (non-existent) band.
She says that she may turn up leaving Conor with the task of hurriedly assembling a band.
Darren introduces him to Eamon (a perfectly cast Mark McKenna) who can play every instrument worth playing and owns a fair percentage of them.
They decide they need a black guy so seek out the only one that they have heard of in the hope that he can play an instrument.
And so it goes - chance encounters and blind luck as they recruit band members.
To begin with they attempt covers.
By setting his film in 1985 Carney has given himself a huge advantage so far as me liking it goes.
The music that graces this movie is right up my alley.
We have bursts of Duran Duran, The Cure, M, Joe Jackson, Spandau Ballet and many more.
At one point there is a delightfully subtle use of an instrumental version of A-Ha's 'Take On Me'.
But, as is usually the case in Carney's movies it is the original music that really resonates.
The original songs were written by Carney with Gary Clark and they are perfect.
The first one that we hear is 'The Riddle of the Model' during the video shoot that sprang from Conor's lie.
It isn't a great eighties pop song but it isn't supposed to be- it merely has to show promise.
The band is godawful when they first form after all.
As the movie progresses they will improve enormously.
Life experience, love and practice make Conor a better songwriter and singer and soon we have genuinely excellent songs like 'To Find You', 'Girls', "Brown Shoes', 'Up' and 'Drive It Like You Stole It'.
Much of the pleasure in this film is watching this progress.
Along the way Brendan will offer sage music advice to Conor introducing him to The Cure in order to explain the happy-sad music that describes what love feels like.
He also does a terrific speech about Duran Duran's music video for Rio - it's the perfect antidote to Patrick Bateman's passionless tirades about Huey Lewis and the News and Genesis in "American Psycho".
My experiences with Carney's previous music films have been very similar.
I began to watch both "Once" and "Begin Again" needing to be convinced that I was in for a good time and in both cases it was one scene that sold me.
One scene that made me settle that little more comfortably in my seat secure in the knowledge that I was going to enjoy the movie.
With "Once" it was the scene in the music shop in which 'guy' and 'girl' first play music together.
For "Begin Again" it was the Keira Knightley song during which Mark Ruffalo imagines the song into life.
With "Sing Street" it was entirely different.
There are small moments that resonate - that Phil Collins line is certainly one but there are many, many more.
Jack Reynor's performance alone is worth the price of a ticket but so too is the work from the young, novice actors that make up the band.
They call themselves 'Sing Street' after their school "Synge Street".
They adapt their attire as different influences are introduced.
We see Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran and the Cure in the hairstyles, long coats and absurd colour choices.
And Conor gains a new name more worthy of a lead singer - Cosmo.
It is Raphina - the model and the reason for the band existing that gives him this moniker.
As Raphina Lucy Boynton looks like Sheena Easton mixed with Lana Del Rey.
The mix also does much to describe her character - at once both troubled but confident and experienced beyond her years.
Boynton has the potential to be huge - the camera loves her and she shows us just enough of the trouble lurking beneath the surface that the character is intriguing rather than transparent.
She brings subtlety to a character that needs to be much more than just a pretty girl.
I liked every performance in this movie but it is her future work that I am most excited about.
It is the love story between Cosmo / Conor and Raphina that has the potential to be the only slightly weak aspect of this film.
It's the old question of whether the beautiful, experienced girl would really fall for the scrawny, younger nerdy kid with a good heart.
I admit that I found myself thinking 'yeah, right' several times as she first accepted Conor's poorly sung line from A-Ha's 'Take On Me' as evidence of his band's existence and then chose to constantly hang out with the band even when they were revealed to be initially embarrassingly awful.
So, yes - maybe that is slightly hard to believe but I just didn't care.
The relationship - like the band - became more believable as it progressed.
The characters, music and delightful dialogue swept me up and I sat in my seat soaking up every line, every note, every plot development.
I left the cinema and immediately added the soundtrack to my Spotify playlist then hopped on Amazon and pre-ordered the blu-ray.
It is due for release on August 8th but take my advice and don't wait... go and see this movie as soon as you can on a cinema screen.
RATING: 90 / 100
CONCLUSION: Pure joy and not just for eighties pop fans. This love letter to young love and love of music is charming and uplifting and it will just plain make you happy- I guarantee it.
Starring: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Jack Reynor, Lucy Boynton, Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Kelly Thornton, Ben Carolan, Mark McKenna, Percy Chamburuka, Conor Hamilton, Karl Rice, Ian Kenny, Don Wycherley
Screenplay: John Carney
Music Score by: Various artists and original songs by Gary Clark and John Carney
Cinematography: Yaron Orbach
Edited by: Andrew Marcus, Julian Ulrichs
Running Time: 106 minutes
Rated: M - Profanity
So says Jack Reynor's Brendan to his younger brother Conor who has fallen instantly in love with a girl so completely that he now must form a band to make the truth out of the line he delivered to her in order to obtain her phone number.
'I'm in a band' - is there a more effective line?
Apparently not and had it failed we wouldn't have a movie here.
That would be a tragedy as "Sing Street" carries on director John Carney's amazing run that started with "Once" and proceeded to the even better "Begin Again"
And as charming as those movies are the third time turns out to truly be the charm.
"Sing Street" is utterly delightful, completely captivating and one of the best movies of the year without a shred of doubt.
(Carney has directed two other films but I haven't seen them and they are not musically themed)
 |
| Conor and Eamon (left) the Lennon and McCartney of Sing Street and far right - the moment that started it all |
He runs into trouble with both the headmaster and a bully but out of it makes friends with the diminutive and nerdy Darren.
When Conor sees an attractive young woman standing outside a home for young women opposite the school gates Darren informs him that she is a little older and doesn't go to the school or indeed associate with anyone from it.
Instantly smitten Conor goes right on over and talks to her.
When she reveals that she wants to be a model he announces that she should be in the music video that he is shooting with his (non-existent) band.
She says that she may turn up leaving Conor with the task of hurriedly assembling a band.
Darren introduces him to Eamon (a perfectly cast Mark McKenna) who can play every instrument worth playing and owns a fair percentage of them.
They decide they need a black guy so seek out the only one that they have heard of in the hope that he can play an instrument.
And so it goes - chance encounters and blind luck as they recruit band members.
To begin with they attempt covers.
By setting his film in 1985 Carney has given himself a huge advantage so far as me liking it goes.
The music that graces this movie is right up my alley.
We have bursts of Duran Duran, The Cure, M, Joe Jackson, Spandau Ballet and many more.
At one point there is a delightfully subtle use of an instrumental version of A-Ha's 'Take On Me'.
But, as is usually the case in Carney's movies it is the original music that really resonates.
The original songs were written by Carney with Gary Clark and they are perfect.
The first one that we hear is 'The Riddle of the Model' during the video shoot that sprang from Conor's lie.
It isn't a great eighties pop song but it isn't supposed to be- it merely has to show promise.
The band is godawful when they first form after all.
As the movie progresses they will improve enormously.
Life experience, love and practice make Conor a better songwriter and singer and soon we have genuinely excellent songs like 'To Find You', 'Girls', "Brown Shoes', 'Up' and 'Drive It Like You Stole It'.
Much of the pleasure in this film is watching this progress.
Along the way Brendan will offer sage music advice to Conor introducing him to The Cure in order to explain the happy-sad music that describes what love feels like.
He also does a terrific speech about Duran Duran's music video for Rio - it's the perfect antidote to Patrick Bateman's passionless tirades about Huey Lewis and the News and Genesis in "American Psycho".
 |
| The film is dedicated 'For brothers everywhere'.... the great Jack Reynor as Brendan |
I began to watch both "Once" and "Begin Again" needing to be convinced that I was in for a good time and in both cases it was one scene that sold me.
One scene that made me settle that little more comfortably in my seat secure in the knowledge that I was going to enjoy the movie.
With "Once" it was the scene in the music shop in which 'guy' and 'girl' first play music together.
For "Begin Again" it was the Keira Knightley song during which Mark Ruffalo imagines the song into life.
With "Sing Street" it was entirely different.
There are small moments that resonate - that Phil Collins line is certainly one but there are many, many more.
Jack Reynor's performance alone is worth the price of a ticket but so too is the work from the young, novice actors that make up the band.
They call themselves 'Sing Street' after their school "Synge Street".
They adapt their attire as different influences are introduced.
We see Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran and the Cure in the hairstyles, long coats and absurd colour choices.
And Conor gains a new name more worthy of a lead singer - Cosmo.
It is Raphina - the model and the reason for the band existing that gives him this moniker.
As Raphina Lucy Boynton looks like Sheena Easton mixed with Lana Del Rey.
The mix also does much to describe her character - at once both troubled but confident and experienced beyond her years.
Boynton has the potential to be huge - the camera loves her and she shows us just enough of the trouble lurking beneath the surface that the character is intriguing rather than transparent.
She brings subtlety to a character that needs to be much more than just a pretty girl.
I liked every performance in this movie but it is her future work that I am most excited about.
 |
| Lucy Boynton as Raphina..... a star in the making |
It's the old question of whether the beautiful, experienced girl would really fall for the scrawny, younger nerdy kid with a good heart.
I admit that I found myself thinking 'yeah, right' several times as she first accepted Conor's poorly sung line from A-Ha's 'Take On Me' as evidence of his band's existence and then chose to constantly hang out with the band even when they were revealed to be initially embarrassingly awful.
So, yes - maybe that is slightly hard to believe but I just didn't care.
The relationship - like the band - became more believable as it progressed.
The characters, music and delightful dialogue swept me up and I sat in my seat soaking up every line, every note, every plot development.
I left the cinema and immediately added the soundtrack to my Spotify playlist then hopped on Amazon and pre-ordered the blu-ray.
It is due for release on August 8th but take my advice and don't wait... go and see this movie as soon as you can on a cinema screen.
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