Sing Street

Irish writer/director John Carney is making a little niche for himself in Hollywood by crafting small, indie love stories built around singer/songwriters. He had a big success in 2007 with Once, the story of two struggling street musicians falling in love as they busk together in modern day Dublin. The film’s song “Falling Slowly” won the Oscar that year for best song. In 2013, Carney made Begin Again about a washed up music industry exec who tries to redeem his career with a fresh-faced young songwriter in New York City.

 

In 2016, Carney wrote and directed Sing Street. Set in Carney’s native Dublin, it is the story of how teenage Connor attempts to form a band in order to impress a girl. Both of which he manages to do. If the plot sounds pretty lightweight, that’s because it is. There are additional details, of course, but they are quickly skimmed over. Other band members? No problem. A flyer posted in the school’s hallway brings talented, easy to get along with fellow students. Expensive instruments? Easy. One of the kids has a dad in a covers band who apparently never had any problem with a bunch of 15 year olds hauling his stuff all over Ireland. Original songs? Taken care of. As it happens, Connor is practically a prodigy, producing winsome, dancy song after song with an ease that might make actual songwriters tear their hair out in jealousy.

The thing is, the film isn’t really trying for reality. It looks and sounds authentic to lower middle class family and school life in the 1980s when the film is set, but that’s not really the goal of the picture. Rather than a realistic exploration of what it’s like to start a band in high school, Sing Street is actually a musical fantasia – a story that departs from reality to explore the creator’s obsessions in this case, the different facets of 1980s pop music. As Connor discovers the synth pop of Duran Duran, the gothic theatricality of The Cure, or the loud, foot-stomping anger of the Sex Pistols, his songs and look evolve to match the new territory he encounters. 

When I say, Sing Street isn’t realistic, I don’t mean it as a criticism. On the contrary, it’s an immensely enjoyable film because of its unabashed embrace of a teenage dream world in which the quiet guy gets the girl, writes amazing songs, and stages a raucous, climactic concert complete with a triumphant middle finger to the powers that be. That’s what makes the film great. Its unironic celebration of the highs and lows, the yearning and the daydreams of teenage existence give Sing Street its power.

The conclusion is ambiguous and rightfully so. Connor and his girlfriend flee the triumphant concert, knowing they’re never going to top that moment in their hometown, and steal his small family boat to cross over to England. Connor has his demo tapes and his girlfriend has her modeling experience from all of his videos. They want to make a go of it in the big city. The film ends just as they’ve lost sight of the Irish shore but can’t see England yet. They’re stuck in the fog, with large waves beginning to toss the small boat, and giant ferries passing by almost unseen in the fog, stirring up giant wakes. Like most ambitious teenagers, they are right in the middle and aren’t sure of what’s coming next. It’s a wonderful visual metaphor for both the fear and the thrill of being an adolescent, feeling like everything is possible but not really knowing all the forces churning around you. The film fades to black, leaving it to viewers to decide whether or not the two catch a break and make it big in the city. I, for one, hope they make it.