Sing Street
Composite Score: 82.83
Starring: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Jack Reynor, Kelly Thornton, Ian Kenny, Ben Carolan, Percy Chamburuka, Mark McKenna, Don Wycherley, and Lucy Boynton
Director: John Carney
Writers: Simon Carmody and John Carney
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance, Coming of Age
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements including strong language and some bullying behavior, a suggestive image, drug material, and teen smoking
Box Office: $13.62 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Sing Street is a coming-of-age comedic drama about a group of 1980s Dublin high schoolers who form a band to help them deal with the dramas of life from John Carney, the writer and director of Begin Again and Once. The film features some excellent original songs, a fun coming-of-age story about finding yourself in high school, and a moving discussion on the relationships between siblings. The uplifting film will move and entertain audiences of all levels of film engagement and is sure to find its way onto many people’s lists of favorite films.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Sing Street’s value as a film will only take you so far as you are willing to let it. For people uninterested in high school romantic drama/comedy, there’s not going to be a lot in the film’s plot to hook you. For people uninterested in band movies, the film’s repeated montages of songwriting, performing, and video-making will quickly become tedious slogs to get through. For people with no siblings of their own, the emotional component of the film will not hit quite as close to home as it will for people with siblings. At the end of the day, Sing Street was made to resonate with specific audiences, and people who cross over into all of those will enjoy it the most, while people outside of them all will most likely find it a difficult film to engage with.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Like most of John Carney’s work, the music in Sing Street is top-notch – paying homage to the music that inspired it while remaining catchy in and of itself, sticking in your mind until the next song plays and takes over. The music also has an important role to play in this film as the outward expression of the development that main character Conor and his bandmates are experiencing. Not only do the lyrics reflect what is going on in his and the others’ lives at the moment, but the music itself also matches the energy and style of their lives and the bands that they happen to be into when they make the songs. Each song is perfect for the point of the film where it falls, and those watching will inevitably find themselves bopping along to each new track as it drops.
Though it belongs to many different genres – music, drama, romance, coming-of-age – the film’s comedic elements truly bring it all together as a wholistic piece. Despite some potential difficulties with some of the characters’ accents, the film’s dialogue remains consistently witty, well-thought-out, and genuine from start to finish. Each character has their own moment to shine as the comic relief in various scenes, from visual humor to situational to verbal, it’s all present and working to tie a nice bow around the rich tapestry of Sing Street.
Great music and quality humor tie together the wholesome story of Sing Street – a boy who starts a band to impress a girl and grows up alongside his friends and siblings in the process – into a cohesive film that is sure to have most audiences thrilled with it by the time its final tagline of “for brothers everywhere” pops up on the screen, cementing its place among their favorite films and the Greatest Films of All Time. The variety of story elements at play in the film might keep it from reaching the tops of most people’s lists, but they help it resonate with a wider base as well. This film is currently available to stream with ads on Roku, Vudu, Tubi, and others and to rent on most other streaming services. Check it out when you get the chance.
