Sing Street movie review & film summary (2016)

Putting together the band has the naive enthusiasm reminiscent of the punk-rock girls in the 2013 Swedish film "We Are the Best!". The bar for entering rock 'n' roll is pretty low; there are no entrance exams. Conor finds allies, one in particular with whom he forms a songwriting collaboration. Before they've found a gig, they decide to make a music video, and Conor asks Raphina to be in it. Shockingly (to him), she agrees. 

And with that, "Sing Street" takes off. Dreams don't always line up with reality, and everyone (parents, siblings, the beautiful and complicated Raphina) learn that hard lesson. But sometimes reality is the dream: when a songwriter stumbles on the "hook" of a song, when a band made up of misfit strangers suddenly coalesce into a team, when the girl you love looks at you and shows you who she is. Dreams are fleeting, but we are nothing without the "substance of things hoped for." The band develops, from a synth-pop sound, to a New Wave-ish aesthetic, as they try to figure out who they are. There are so many memorable sequences, quiet moments of growing connection between Conor and Raphina, the band's series of music videos, and a killer fight scene between Brendan and Conor. Brendan, watching his brother blossom, thinks maybe that he is about to be left behind. Who will he be without his role as dispenser-of-music history and provider of-courtship-tips to his little brother?

As funny as the film is, John Carney infuses scenes with a poignancy bordering on deep blue melancholy. He is helped in this by the sensitive performance of Walsh-Peelo, required to run the gamut of emotions: hurt, fear, ambition, growing pains, first romantic feelings, a sense that the world is even more painful and scary than he had realized. It's a delight to watch the flickers of thought his eyes, his quiet listening face, the rising flush in his cheeks in moments of intensity. He's beautifully open as an actor. 

The surrounding cast is superb, both the broad stereotypes and the eccentric weirdos in the band. Adolescence is one of the most self-involved phases of life, and that's as it should be. Kids develop their characters and try on different identities, looking for a good fit. (Conor goes from dressing like Simon LeBon to Morrissey, and you get the sense he's just getting started.) One of the most essential elements of adolescence is finding like-minded friends: people who obsess about the same things, people who "get" you. Whether it be serious-jock baseball players (as in Richard Linklater's "Everybody Wants Some!!") or devoted music obsessives, it's the same goal: Find your people, find your own tribe.