Irishman John Carney is one of the darlings of the low-budget indie scene having made Once and Begin Again. His latest effort Sing Street sits him perfectly in his comfortable niche zone – a low budget romance/musical featuring a great soundtrack and some very good performances. This is John Carney doing what he does best, which is always a treat because he does it incredibly well.
Dublin, 1985. Conor (the debut appearance by Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is the youngest child of the Lalor family. They’re a working class Irish family in the 1980s so needless to say they’re a miserable lot who speak through thick Dublin accents and whose home is constantly filled with the faint haze of stale cigarette smoke. With money becoming increasingly tight Conor’s father Robert (Aiden Gillen) announces that he is to be pulled from his school and sent to be educated by the brothers in a public school called Synge Street. It’s the kind of school where the students are rough and the teachers even rougher.
On his first day there he notices a beautiful girl standing across the road and musters up the courage to go speak to her. She is Raphina (Lucy Boynton), a mysterious and unique looking model searching for her next project. Without thinking, the smitten Conor asks if she’d like to be in a music video for his band. She agrees. The only problem is that Conor isn’t in a band, but with the help of a couple of fellow Synge Street misfits he forms one and begins belting out music and lyrics alongside the best tracks of the eighties, including The Clash, A-Ha, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet.
‘Feel-good’ independent films aren’t always this good. Every so often one comes along that plays its indie-sensibility cards too aggressively then ends up twee and saccharine sweet. For every The Spectacular Now or The Perks of Being a Wallflower we get a Juno or worse. Sing Street thankfully plays all of its pieces tactfully; this is one of the best low budget indie films to come along in a while that’s able to present us with the warmth that Carney is so good at, yet also being a few scenes short of one of the social realist British kitchen sink dramas.
Perhaps because he’s also a singer/song writer, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo brings his A-game to his first screen appearance. Coming-of-age films live or die on the charisma of their leads; we’ve all met a Conor at some stage and Walsh-Peelo brings him to life with care. Others in the cast who deserve a mention are Conor’s older brother played by Jack Reynor, who it seems is right on the cusp of breaking into stardom, and most of all Lucy Boynton. Boynton is a true beauty, and although Raphina is one colour of hair dye away from being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, she might be the best character in the film.
Aiden Gillen, who most of us know as that scheming bastard Littlefinger from Game of Thrones, puts in really good performance as Conor’s dad. Able to blend the gloominess of a man going through a divorce and the on-the-nose cheekiness that makes up the film’s tone, he manages to personify the film by playing what should rightly be a sad character but makes him memorable and charming. Unlike Game of Thrones however, he thankfully sticks to a single accent.
The Irish accent can be a joy; think of the calming tones of Liam Cunningham or the soft spoken Daniel Day-Lewis. But when that very thick Irish accent that usually hails from Cork hits the ear it’s suddenly mighty difficult to understand. Or to put it another way – ‘When dare accents ah really tick’. It suits Sing Street very well, for some scenes are dark enough to give the film an edge and have that trademark Irish brand of acceptance misery while others are laugh out loud funny.
There’s a saying about the Irish way of thinking that goes “In life you’re either going to laugh or cry, so you might as well laugh”. Irish comedies are some of the best in the world and Sing Street is one of those films that it seems impossible to walk out of in a bad mood. It has a killer soundtrack by a director who clearly loves music, a cast who are more than willing to give it their all, and a loud and bombastic vein of humour that is funnier than most current comedies. It’s the perfect blend of melancholy and uplift; a ‘feel-good’ film in the truest sense that shouldn’t be missed.
Sing Street is in cinemas from 14th July through Roadshow Films.
