‘Sing Street’ (2016) Movie Review

I have been told to watch this movie for MONTHS now. It’s not that I was avoiding it, its just that I had seen almost zero advertisements about it and had zero expectations. Well it is available to stream on Netflix now so I bit the bullet and watched it. I am so glad I did.

‘Sing Street’ has what sounds like a very average plot. A boy from 80’s Ireland sees a girl way out of his league and wanted to impress her by being in a band. The thing about this movie though, is that it takes that ordinary setup and adds some levity and fun to it. The school that our band-mates go to basically has the worst head of the school that I have ever seen. He’s just a straight up dick. There are also a lot of family issues going on in our main character’s life as well. The best twist that this movie has, is that it ends up being more of a story about two brothers that love and support each other. Not all love stories have to be about a boy and a girl, and I love that.

The next great thing about this movie is the soundtrack. I cannot believe that one of the songs from this movie wasn’t nominated for an Oscar. It’s honestly a damn shame. The music is very 80’s pop inspired with a sort of funky-punk twist. Super catchy. My favorite song in the film includes an amazing scene at a prom which gave me chills throughout the whole thing.

The main thing that I can nitpick about, is that an Irish accent can be so hard for Americanized ears to understand. The band’s producer specifically has such a strong accent, that 90% of his dialogue was missed by me. That’s not the films fault, being an Irish film, but it’s something that people might want to look out for.

Overall, I am shocked by how much I enjoyed this film. I have really enjoyed John Carney’s other work (‘Begin Again’ and ‘Once’) and his ability to tell an intimate story in such an interesting way. I absolutely recommend logging into Netflix tonight and watching this with a blanket and some hot chocolate.

9/10