Sing Street
Review by Paul Preston
Welcome to Today I Watched…, a series of posts documenting my new challenge – watch a movie a day for the rest of my life. Keep coming back to TheMovieGuys.net to find out what I watch each day…and get my take on it.
When I see a movie that’s a new release in theaters or for home viewing, I’ll give it a proper review in the “Reviews”, otherwise, I’ll write about it here.
Feb. 20, 2017 – 20th Century Women
If you’re missing John Hughes (and if you’re not, then you’ve never seen a John Hughes movie), then look no further than Sing Street. It takes place in Dublin and feels like John O’Hughes, as young students are oppressed by the man (like Bender) and do everything for the girl (like Lloyd Dobler) (actually, I just remembered that Lloyd Dobler is from Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything…, not a John Hughes movie, but my point is, Sing Street harkens back to incredibly likeable movies!) (also just realized that Hughes itself is an Irish name, so there’s no real need to put the “O’” in front of it…).
Sing Street is from Irish filmmaker John Carney, whose first movie to really make an impact in the states was Once, and it won an Academy Award. I feel his movies have only gotten better since. This is the story of Conor, who has it in his head to impress the local girl who claims to be a model, Raphina, so he starts a band to win her over. The great balance Carney has here is to make that story interesting and keep just as interesting the family and friend dynamics in Conor’s life. There’s no storyline that’s weighing down the film, they’re all interesting.
The odds are against Conor – the school is full of bullies (the priest/headmaster being the biggest bully of them all) and his band doesn’t know any songs, but he persists and is easy to cheer for. Stand-out performances include Jack Reynor as Conor’s brother Brendan, a refreshingly truthfully acted and written character. Also Lucy Boynton as the strikingly-good-looking Raphina. You get why Conor’s after her.
Sing Street works best because it never plays down to its audience. It wears its charm on its sleeve rather than get bogged down in tired dirty jokes. The original songs (criminally un-nominated by Oscar) reflect the best of the ‘80s and Carney even throws in a very effective fantasy sequence. This is one of the most enjoyable films of 2016. See if now if you haven’t yet.
Directed by: John Carney
Release Date: March 17, 2016
Run Time: 106 Minutes
Country: Ireland/UK/USA
Rated: PG-13
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
