Sing Street Review

<p>I&&num;8217&semi;m going to be straight up and say that I do not like musicals&period; <em>Grease<&sol;em>&comma;<em> Little Shop of Horrors<&sol;em>&comma; <em>The Rocky Horror Picture Show<&sol;em>&semi; they all really annoy me but I might hate coming-of-age movies even more&period; For every <em>Harold &amp&semi; Maude<&sol;em>&comma; you get ten <em>Me and Earl and the Dying Girl<&sol;em>s&period; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0138809&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;ov&lowbar;dr">John Carney<&sol;a>&&num;8216&semi;s previous films&comma; <em>Once <&sol;em>and <em>Begin Again<&sol;em>&comma; are interpretations of the coming-of-age musical with varying degrees of success&period; <em>Once<&sol;em> is the movie I&&num;8217&semi;m more inclined to fall for with its tragic beats in the story and excellent music that works outside of the film&comma; as well as in&period; But <em>Sing Street<&sol;em> is able to do more than just be tragic&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s able to inspire&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Dublin in 1985&comma; the Lalor family are in the midst of crisis&period; Robert &lpar;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0318821&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t2">Aidan Gillen<&sol;a>&rpar;&comma; the head of the family&comma; announces that Conor &lpar;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm6916321&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t1">Fedia Walsh-Peelo<&sol;a> in his feature film debut&rpar; will have to transfer to another school without fees so the family can pay the bills&period; Conor&&num;8217&semi;s siblings&comma; the preoccupied older sister Ann &lpar;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm5801651&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t6">Kelly Thornton<&sol;a>&rpar; and burnout brother Brendan &lpar;a great <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm2930503&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t4">Jack Reynor<&sol;a>&rpar;&comma; don&&num;8217&semi;t seem to mind the change&period; Even Brendan is making light of the situation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Starting at the new school&comma; he suffers the wrath of a bully&comma; makes new friends&comma; and meets a girl&period; Yes&comma; this could be a generic coming-of-age film&period; Conor sets his sights on a dropout&sol;model&comma; Raphina &lpar;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm2377903&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;tt&lowbar;cl&lowbar;t5">Lucy Boynton<&sol;a>&rpar;&period; He tells her that he has a band &lpar;he doesn&&num;8217&semi;t&rpar; and says he should star in their new video&period; Then we get the atypical montage sequence of getting a band together&period; A band full of wacky teenagers that just happen to play instruments and don&&num;8217&semi;t seem to care what music they play&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;105164" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-105164" style&equals;"width&colon; 1172px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-105164" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03190127&sol;MV5BMjMwODAxNDk0M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTM2MjU1ODE&percnt;40&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;&lowbar;SX1857&lowbar;SY859&lowbar;&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Sing Street&comma; The Weinstein Company&comma; and Elevation Pictures&rpar;" width&equals;"1172" height&equals;"859" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-105164" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Sing Street&comma; The Weinstein Company&comma; and Elevation Pictures&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>But that&&num;8217&semi;s the bad part&period; What works is almost everything else&period; The initial video starring Raphina could be torn from the first season of HBO&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Flight of the Conchords&period; <&sol;em>Every sequence featuring music &lpar;created by Carney and Gary Clark&comma; no relation to Gary Clark Jr&rpar; is appropriate for the song that is playing and captures the correct mood of the scenes that are around it&period; Most of the songs from the band&comma; Sing Street &lpar;named after their school&comma; Synge Street&rpar;&comma; are quite entertaining&period; Songs like &&num;8220&semi;Up&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;Drive It Like You Stole It&&num;8221&semi; would probably be huge hits if played on the radio&period; The rest of the soundtrack is rounded out by songs from Hall &amp&semi; Oates&comma; Joe Jackson&comma; The Jam and Duran Duran &lpar;which is featured in one of the best dialogue scenes in the film&rpar;&comma; among others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The acting is also pretty good across the board&period; After many abysmal roles&comma; Reynor happens to be quite fun and charming as Conor&&num;8217&semi;s brother&period; Every little bit of information on his character is used over time and helps scenes later on&period; Walsh-Peelo is believable as Conor&comma; if not annoying at times as most teenagers are&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t know if Carney tried to get Felicity Jones or not&comma; but it sure seemed like he wanted her&period; Boynton is a near clone and it proved to be distracting at times&period; Nevertheless&comma; her performance was solid&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;105163" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-105163" style&equals;"width&colon; 1106px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-105163" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03190145&sol;MV5BMTA4MjkzNzYzMjJeQTJeQWpwZ15BbWU4MDI0NjI1NTgx&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;&lowbar;SX1857&lowbar;SY903&lowbar;&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Sing Street&comma; The Weinstein Company&comma; and&semi; Elevation Pictures&rpar;" width&equals;"1106" height&equals;"903" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-105163" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Sing Street&comma; The Weinstein Company&comma; and Elevation Pictures&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>What turns <em>Sing Street<&sol;em> into something more is how it uses its setting&period; Each character is suffering from Dublin&&num;8217&semi;s terrible economy&period; Their family is torn apart&comma; not just by each other&comma; but the environment around them&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s an interesting subplot with the Priest Headmaster of Synge Street that speaks about the abuse &lpar;not sexual this time&rpar; that children went through&period; Neglect is a theme that is explored effectively and moves these characters to a logical place in the film without feeling smothered by the cuteness of it all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While it borders the line of overly cute and sweet&comma; the film never forgets to have fun&period; Among the various songs&comma; the characters are genuinely fun to be around&period; Without feeling like complete caricatures&comma; the movie doesn&&num;8217&semi;t forget to let the moments of sadness inform their psychology and help you understand who each person is&period; These characters are people who are not about to let their environment bring them down &&num;8211&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s the escape that proves to be so much fun&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Sing Street <&sol;em>makes it hard to hate it&period; Despite the initial opening of the film scaring me into thinking I was going to watch the movie I didn&&num;8217&semi;t want to see&comma; it subverted any trappings that the genre has by being honest&period; Carney has made a believable and honest film about youth&period; Corny and maudlin at times&comma; <em>Sing Street<&sol;em> can&&num;8217&semi;t help but be true to itself and&comma; weirdly enough&comma; that isn&&num;8217&semi;t an insult this time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;