Sing Street takes place in 1980s Ireland, in a middle of an economic downturn that has young people flocking to London looking for work. Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) has just moved to a new school, and is struggling with how his family is seemingly falling apart. And then he runs into Ann (Kelly Thornton), a teenage model. He gets a crush on her, and he invites her to be in the music video of his band. The thing is, Conor doesn't really have a band. He quickly cobbles one together with some of his schoolmates, the music of the time becoming his guide to finding his identity.
The trick to Sing Street is that it never overreaches. It provides an interesting context with its economic downturn, but this isn’t something the main is really thinking about. His family also happens to be falling apart, but this isn’t the primary concern of this film. The movie allows it main character to be what he is: a teenage boy who doesn’t really know who he is allowed some escape through music. He forms a band not because he wants to change the world, or even because he has some ideas about music. In the end, Sing Street is really just a movie about making a band to get the girl.
The film does find some real heart in Conor’s relationship with his brother, who serves as his guide through the musical landscape of the 1980s. In these moments, the film sort of touches on the pathos of a wasted youth, of dreams deferred and now lived vicariously through others. But this is a small part of a film that is mainly about enjoying music. The film beautifully captures the experience of discovering what you like, of hearing a song that becomes an obsession. And then it gets even better as it shows us this band putting songs together.
Director John Carney has only really made films about musicians, and he is really, really good at it. This film is at its most joyful when it’s watching the members of the titular band trying to put a song together. It captures the spark of invention, little moments when a chord and lyric come together. And then it keeps following the song through its conception, down through rehearsal and into the final performance. It is genuinely moving stuff, the film just incredible when it’s doing nothing more than showing off these young musicians trying something.
And the music is pretty good. The conceit here is that the band is mostly just trying to copy the music of the time, taking influences from one band after another. The songs, but songwriter Gary Clark, play a mean trick by sounding both credible and charmingly amateurish at the same time. And when the film allows itself to become a full-blown musical fantasy, it doesn’t squander the opportunity. The cast is pretty great. Ferdia Walsh-Peelo is pitch perfect as Conor, the character’s false bravado really shining through. And though Kelly Thornton elevates a character that as written, doesn’t really have does much depth. But pay special attention Jack Reynor, who looks like a strange cross between Seth Rogen and Chris Pratt, and steals every scene he’s in.
Sing Street is just delightful. There isn’t really much to plot, but it still manages to be overflowing with feeling. It feels personal in all the right ways, the movie keeping itself small enough to never feel entirely ridiculous. It is just a story of these young men finding escape in music, taking risks with their identity as they try to become something other than what they currently are. It is a fantasy, but a measured one, and it is thoroughly enchanting.
My Rating:
