Sing Street will delight fans of The Commitments. The story is set in Ireland in the mid-1980s. John Carney, who wrote and directed Sing Street, gave this summery of his movie: “Boy meets girl. Girl Unimpressed. Boy starts band.” Connor (Ferdia Walson-Peelo) deals with a troubled family situation. Connor is sent to a crappy (but cheap) school where he gets beaten up and harassed by the priest running the cruel enterprise. But things change when Connor falls in love with Raphina (Lucy Boynton) who has aspirations to be a model. In a stunning maneuver, Connor invites Raphina to be part of his band’s music video. Amused, she agrees. The only problem is Connor doesn’t have a band. Life in Ireland in the Eighties isn’t much fun. Economic malaise stifles life. But Connor has a plan and you’re going to root for him to succeed. Carney also provides original music in the mode of Duran Duran, the Cure, and Joy Division. The soundtrack to Sing Street is worth a listen, too. GRADE: A-
TRACK LIST:
1. Rock N Roll Is A Risk (Dialogue) – Jack Reynor
2. Stay Clean – Motorhead
3. The Riddle of the Model – Sing Street
4. Rio – Duran Duran
5. Up – Sing Street
6. To Find you – Sing Street
7. Town Called Malice – The Jam
8. In Between Days – The Cure
9. A Beautiful Sea – Sing Street
10. Maneater – Daryl Hall & John Oates
11. Steppin’ Out – Joe Jackson
12. Drive It Like You Stole It – Sing Street
13. Up (Bedroom Mix) – Sing Street
14. Pop Muzik – M
15. Girls – Sing Street
16. Brown Shoes – Sing Street
17. Go Now – Adam Levine
18. Up – The Score
19. Drive It Like You Stole It – Hudson Thames
Interesting soundtrack–I love Duran Duran and the Cure. Is GO NOW a cover of the Moody Blues’ song? I’m not a big fan of Adam Levine, but I may have to give that one a listen if it is.
Deb, we’re in Ohio for our niece’s High School Graduation today and the soundtrack in back in North Tonawanda (I thought I packed it…oops). When I get back, I’ll let you know about “Go Now.”
Just looked up the song (hey– this interwebs thing might just catch on) and it is, sadly, not a remake of the Moody Blues’ song. But now I must go listen to the Moody Blues….
Deb, I just checked YouTube and Adam Levine’s “Go Now” is not the Moody Blues song. But I remember it now. The song pops up at a key part of SING STREET. A bit of a moody song.
Even more digging around. The Moody Blues’ version of GO NOW was itself a cover version:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Now
Deb, I never knew The Moody Blues version was a cover! Amazing what you can learn on the Internet with a little digging!
I did, and was about to mention…their cover of James Brown’s “I’ll Go Crazy” was good, too…much better than the later version of the band’s mushy quasi-prog-rock. (King Crimson, yes, except for those early lyrics…Moody Blues, no thanks.)
Todd, I love James Brown’s “I’ll Go Crazy.”
Sounds entertaining, though unlike Deb I am not a fan of Duran Duran. ONCE was OK, but I thought it was overrated as a “great movie” by some critics.
I love the Moody Blues’ “Go Now” by the way.
Jeff, I’m a big Moody Blues fan, too. Diane loves ONCE (because of the love story, not the music so much). I thought the play version of ONCE was terrific! You and Jackie would enjoy SING STREET.
I’m sure we’ll see it. We watched a small movie on HBO (?) on Demand yesterday I had never heard of, INFINITELY POLAR BEAR with Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana. It is based on the life of writer/director Maya Forbes. Her socialite father was bipolar and had to take care of her and her younger sister in Cambridge while his wife went to business school at Columbia. Forbes had her own 12 year old daughter play the character based on herself. Ruffalo does his usual good job.
Jeff, I want to see INFINITELY POLAR BEAR, too. I think it might be out on Blu-ray so I’ll pick up a copy.
I hadn’t heard of this film. I’ll put it on my netflix queue.
I saw infinitely polar bear on the schedule for (IIRC) starz. I’ll tape it at some point, but it looked like it might be a downer.
Maggie, I’ll watch anything with Mark Ruffalo (from Buffalo) in it…even if it is a downer.
Maggie, it isn’t really a downer, despite the subject matter. Ruffalo does a good job of making him kind of annoying (especially to his embarrassed daughters ) but yet likable.
So you saw this…movie? Play? Or did you just listen to a record?
Rick, SING STREET is a movie. The writer and director, John Carney, also wrote and directed ONCE (another musical movie) which then morphed into a play that Diane and I saw when the touring company performed in Buffalo. Both SING STREET and ONCE have soundtracks. But the play version of ONCE has more songs than the movie version (just to complicate things).
The poster lists The Clash but they are not on the soundtrack. Aha-yuck.
Steve, there’s a scene when the band tries to emulate The Clash. Apparently, that effort didn’t make the soundtrack.
I saw The Moody Blues in Dec 1965! They were good then and they’ve been good ever since!