Sing Street Film Review

Sing Street film review 

 

Set in Dublin in 1985 this film tells the story of Conor who in order to impress a girl called Raphina and get away from his family’s drama, sets up a band but this soon takes over his life. Released in 2016 this is directed by John Carney,also directer of once and begin again, he first announced this project in 2014 and was released at sundance film festival on January 24th 2016 as well as released on May 20th 2016 in the United Kingdom and April 15th in America. It made a total gross profit of $13.6 million. This film is based heavily on Carney's own high school experience of bullies and trying to impress a girl he liked as well as the band he was in.

This film touches all genres from comedy, drama, musical and romance but at the center of this film there is a love story between Conor(Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) and Raphina(Lucy Boynton) and we see their relationship grow.

From early on in the film we see our protagonist and feel empathy as he is being sent to a new and much more rough school, and from the shot of him walking in he looks lost and though he does not fit in as he is in long smart jacket and clean and tidy school uniform while the others are in just shirts and jackets with half done up ties. We see that he is an outsider in this new school and also is teased and bullied by fellow pupils as well as the head teacher, who torments him throughout the film, making some scenes very unpredictable for the viewer as we do not know what he will do next. We see him start to make friends and notice a girl called Raphina outside his school gate who he thinks pretty and dressed completely different in a very 80s outfit , so in order to get her to talk to him says he’s started a band and she can be in one of their videos. We see she has higher status than him as the camera is tilted up when we look at her and down when we look at Conor, but he is trying to gain status with her and throughout the film we see a relationship blossom between them as they share secrets with one another.

What also stands out in this film are the songs that Conor’s band perform throughout. They are all different pastiches of other 80s songs and this brings an air of nostalgia to the film and also through these songs we see the band gradually becoming better and better. These short musical moments also make the film more unique as it is not a musical as they are not sung breaking the fourth wall but they do show us some of Conor’s inner feelings and this is especially effective in one of the songs that is a dream sequence showing how Conor wants his life to be with his parents happily married, brother being a hero and the girl he likes being with him.

Also through the film we see a strong bond between Conor and his brother Brendon (Jack Reynor). This stays strong from beginning to end and even when their life is rough and their parents are arguing they, along with their sister Ann( Kelly Thornton), put music on and try to be optimistic. Brendon also seems like a character that Conor has a lot of trust in and at the end of the film Brendon is the only one that Conor tells that he and Ann are running away to England.

The ending of the film is also quite bitter sweet as we see Conor and Raphina sailing off with no idea of what they are going to do when they get to England but they want to start a better life for themselves. The audience doesn’t even know if they will survive the trip and are quite worried for these characters as they have been invested in them throughout the film.

Overall the film is very good and has a strong story with characters that everyone can empathize with. This film also features a great soundtrack with original songs that the band performs and classic 80’s songs to add to the nostalgia.