When asked what kind of music he plays, 15-year-old Conor has to ponder for a moment — after all, he’s only just thought of having a band.
“I’m a futurist,” he replies. It has a ring to it, and this kid has a lot of reasons to look ahead.
Conor (played by engaging newcomer Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is struggling to find himself in 1985 Dublin. His parents are breaking up, he’s just had to switch to a tough school because of family money problems, and his adored older brother Brendan (Jack Reynor) is sitting around all day smoking weed and nursing disappointments.
So Conor starts a band, for a common reason — he wants to impress a girl. She’s a year older, and she stands around looking cool, and she claims to be a model. Her name is Raphina (Lucy Boynton), and Conor is hopelessly besotted.
He wants to make some music videos so she can star in them, which means he needs to write songs and recruit bandmates. This leads to some of the film’s funniest scenes, as a group of nerds flounder their way into playing music (Mark McKenna is especially good as a multi-talented instrumentalist who love rabbits).
Their early efforts are weak. Brendan crushes the band’s cassette tape underfoot after listening to his brother’s first Duran Duran cover. When Conor points out that cassettes can be taped over, Brendan says, “No,” as though the tape itself must be exorcised of its bad mojo.
Writer-director John Carney is the creator of “Once” and “Begin Again,” two films devoted to the proposition that music can save your life. His movies tend toward corn, but they also offer some giddiness along the way.
“Sing Street” is the same. Built on memories of “The Commitments” (another Dublin film about the making of a band), the movie isn’t exactly hard-hitting. It manages to make marital strife — Aidan Gillen and “Commitments” star Maria Doyle Kennedy are excellent as the parents — and ruthless priests seem oddly unthreatening.
But Carney gets a lot of details right. When the brothers analyze a music video, or a teen keyboardist proves his chops by launching into Harold Faltermeyer’s synth-pop theme from “Beverly Hills Cop,” you know Carney has sharp memories of the era.
The longer it goes the more the film steers toward feel-good sappiness, and the ending reaches way too big. But there are enough delicious details here to keep “Sing Street” alive and kicking.
“Sing Street” 3 stars
A 15-year-old Dublin lad (engaging newcomer Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) gathers some fellow school nerds to start a band. The year is 1985, and the movie has lots of funny details about that moment in music history, even if it eventually gets pretty sappy. Directed by John Carney, of “Once” fame.
Rating: PG-13, for language, subject matter
Showing: Guild 45th
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
