Sing Street (2016)

 Street of Dreams

            Sing Street is that rare coming-of-age film that is near-perfect in every way. It’s confident in what type of film it wants to be and it’s nostalgic without that nostalgia being the main attraction. In other words, it is not that film only your parents will understand and enjoy, although they most certainly will enjoy it as well as younger people who love 80’s New Wave and New Romantics music as much as I do. Most importantly, it loves its characters. The film wants them to achieve their dreams just as much as the audience does. There is struggle, but it never once becomes gratuitously depressing to the point of unwatchability. Both the film and the characters are optimistic. One character accurately sums up the entirety of Sing Street when she talks about what love is: Happy-sad.

            The film takes place in Dublin during the mid-1980s. Ireland is going through a recession and the masses are flocking to London with the hope of better lives. Fifteen-year-old Conor Lalor is not one of these people. His parents’ marriage is failing, his brother Brenden is a burnout, and he is forced to drop out of his expensive school to attend a cheaper Catholic school by the name of Synge Street. Conor immediately becomes the object of ridicule. He is tormented by Barry, a sadistic bully. Conor also finds an enemy in the school’s principle, the ruthless Brother Baxter who forces Conor to walk barefoot in the muddy courtyard for failing to own a pair of black shoes. He does manage to become friends with Darren, an aspiring entrepreneur. He is also attracted to Raphina, a budding model who lives across the street from the school in a home for orphan girls. In one of the film’s highlights, Conor introduces himself to her and casually mentions that he’s in a band. He asks her if she would like to appear in his music videos in the vain hope that she will show up. She agrees, but Conor’s initial excitement turns to fear: “We need to start a band,” he frantically tells Darren. It isn’t long before they discover Eamon, a musical prodigy who can play almost any instrument with ease. Conor and Darren don’t have to ask him twice to join as lead guitarist, much to the disappointment of his mother. The trio are soon joined by Larry and Garry who assume the roles of drummer and bassist. Ngig is the last to join as the band’s keyboardist. There is a humorous moment in the film where Darren suggests recruiting Ngig solely because he is black and will therefore make the band appear new and exciting. Of course, Conor becomes the lead singer and Darren acts as manager for the band, which they decide to call Sing Street, after their school. But Raphina is leaving soon to become a model, and a race against time ensues to, of course, win the girl over.

            Every aspect of Sing Street, the film, is executed flawlessly. John Carney, the writer and director perfectly recaptures both the look and feel of 1980s Dublin and the music that helped define that decade. Carney even wrote the original songs that Conor and his band perform, taking inspiration from legendary bands such as Duran Duran, The Cure, and eventually Spandau Ballet. In the film’s best scene, Conor imagines how the music video for their Spandau Ballet pastiche, titled “Drive It Like You Stole It” will look, with the entire band dressed in 1950s style suits and background actors dancing in an American high school setting not unlike the one in Back to the Future, which is name-dropped several times. Conor’s own parents and Barry show up to dance, Brother Baxter performs cartwheels, and even Conor’s brother Brenden arrives on a motorcycle, dressed exactly like James Dean from Rebel Without a Cause and squares off with a Biff-like adversary in a knife fight. It’s just the right amount of insanity without being overpowering and distracting us from the rest of the film.

            It helps that Carney has a background in music as all the songs are excellent, especially in that they sound like they were written by kids. The actors are also uniformly brilliant. They don’t look like 25–30-year-olds playing kids. They look like kids and sound like kids. Their voices even crack when performing their songs, which only adds to their charm. Both Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Lucy Boynton, who play Conor and Raphina, stand out and one hopes that they continue to pursue acting. Boynton would later play Freddie Mercury’s love interest in Bohemian Rhapsody, another ‘80s set musical film. I hope Walsh-Peelo does the same since he has a great singing voice, but I would also like to see him in different roles too. It would be a tragedy to see him sidelined only to familiar roles.

            Finally, the most important aspect of why Sing Street works is how the characters are portrayed. They’re not musical savants destined for stardom, although they certainly deserve to be. They’re making music because it’s fun. The film also thankfully forgoes the main villain, the opposing force that says the main character will never be famous, as seen way too often in coming-of-age flicks. There are antagonists, but none of them could qualify as a villain and some, such as Barry, are given a chance to redeem themselves. The villain could be growing up during uncertain times or time itself, as Conor is trying to beat the clock the entire film, only for his dream of Raphina falling for him just out of reach. Of course, all power ballads must end somewhere. I won’t spoil how or where, but I will say that although it doesn't end with a bang as we would expect, director Carney goes for something simpler and smaller. And what he achieves is a perfect high note.