Film Review: Sing Street (2016)

Source: The Weinstein Company

John Carney is one of those directors who have a central theme when it comes to his films. Just like another major director, Damien Chazelle, his films are centred around the love of music. Not making a typical musical, but showing an appreciation and love for what music does to people. I have not seen his other films, but I have heard fantastic things about all of them.

I have heard so much praise for this film ever since it was released. I have been wanting to watch this film for a while now, but I had never found the time to be able to watch it. This is exactly the same situation that I had with another music-based film, Whiplash (my review of Whiplash can be found here). Both of these are films that I took years to watch, and yet I knew that I would love them. And that is exactly what happened.

Sing Street is an incredibly touching film that somehow manages to balance humour and drama at the same time. It is incredibly rare that a film will manage to make me laugh and cry at the same time, and yet this film succeeds in this. This is down to the story and how the film was written. Carney’s screenplay is incredibly simple in the plot, yet complicated down to the character development. It feels real, yet also has glimmers of fantasy.

Source: The Weinstein Company

The character development is also driven by the performances given in this film. Ferdia Walsh-Peelo (Conor) has a fantastic debut performance here, and he really is the star of the film. Whilst his vocals isn’t perfect, it fits with the story of a 15-year boy developing his love of music. This casting was a fantastic choice, as it makes the story feel even more real. Walsh-Peelo is a fantastic actor and I hope that he gets to do more stuff from this.

This is also a big break for Lucy Boynton, who only really did TV series up until this point. Her mysterious personality stands out, and her quirkiness makes you realise why Conor is attracted to her. Special shout-out also has to go to Jack Reynor, who plays Conor’s brother Brendan. This is possibly one of the best brother portrayals that I have seen on film, and you really see how the two brothers connect and relate to each other.

Source: The Weinstein Company

This film deals with several issues, and a major one has to do with religion. With the setting being Dublin in the 1980s, this was a major point for Irish history when the recession hit families. Due to this, the first plot point comes at the very start when Conor has to move from a private school to a public school. This affects Conor hard, as he goes from the comfort of private to public and has to learn to make do.

Source: The Weinstein Company