 |
| Sing Street (2016) |
First and foremost, I love how naturalistic this movie is, in that it feels like the most accurate depiction of reality that I've probably ever seen in a movie. The world the movie presents feels so real, and I'm 100% confident this is exactly what like was like in Ireland in the 80s, even if it wasn't. There's not a lot of glamour, lots of muted colours especially at the school, the relationships between the characters feel like a lot of relationships I've had with actual people over the years. The great thing about this general atmosphere is that it knows when to inject some colour and joy into the mix to stop it from feeling like too much of a gloom-fest. The tone is always shifting, but it never feels messy or sloppy, just... natural. Occasionally, characters will talk over the top of one another, but not in a way that feels forced, which is a weird way to phrase that, but it's the best I've got at the moment. Especially when Conor and Eamon are writing their songs, they'll agree that they like a place the song is going, and voice their approval at the same time as each other, but they'll say different things to get their points across. There's no talking in unison to punctuate a point like you see a lot in other films that do a similar thing. The film also occasionally goes to some really dark places, and the way it sort of explores those themes by highlighting the opposite tone is really nice. For example, the parents will be having a marriage-ending argument in the other room, and their kids will be listening to music and dancing in the other room. On paper, that sounds really dysfunctional, but it just works here. It's really hard for me to get this point across, and I feel like I've already f***ed it up, but trust me, it's great.
 |
| Ferdia Walsh-Peelo as Conor |
Another thing this film does great is make me love music. In general, I'm not a huge music connoisseur, I'll listen to basically anything that's on the radio and I don't follow any artists or even keep up with the pop culture music scene all that much. There are songs I like more than others, and occasionally I'll find myself singing those songs by myself, but more often than not, they're either songs from a TV show like Futurama, or they'll be comedy songs, from Weird Al or the Axis of Awesome or something like that. In general, I like listening to soundtracks more than listening to songs. So, you can imagine my surprise at becoming so invested in a film which uses music so heavily, which isn't to say I hate musicals, but this is straight-up a film about music. The conversations between the two brothers about music and 'happy sad', I found myself agreeing with completely, and the philosophy the film presents is really well thought out. You can tell this is a story written by someone who loves music, and the great part is the music itself is really great too. The pre-existing tracks they pick are great, but the original pieces written for the movie are excellent. With a few repeat listens, these might become part of my regular 'sing-it-in-the-shower' library. 'Drive it Like You Stole It' and 'Brown Shoes' are my favourites, but all of them in general are well written and well performed, and I love how sort of multi-genre the whole thing is. 'Riddle of the Model' is a very different song than 'To Find You' or 'Girls', and each song fits the tone of the current part of the movie beautifully, also functioning as a glimpse into Conor's mindset at that particular moment, which isn't really subtle, but it's not trying to be, which is almost refreshing, in a way.
 |
| Mark McKenna as Eamon |
The cast of this movie do an excellent job. They all play their roles really naturally, and no one ever feels too over-the-top for the tone the movie's going for. What's great about that is no one ever feels like they're underplaying it either. Ferdia Walsh-Peelo does an utterly incredible job as the lead, especially when you consider this was his debut performance. When I learned that, I was stunned. It's very nuanced for the most part, in that the character doesn't have a lot of emotional outbursts or big speeches. A lot of the character of Conor in general is very internal, and Ferdia plays it perfectly. I can almost always tell what's going on inside his head, which is really what you want in a character whose only real form of emotional release is music. Raphina is a fantastic character, and Lucy Boynton plays her wonderfully. There's a lot of depth to this character that obviously gets explored as time goes on, but I think her most telling moment really comes from her first scene in the film. Based on the look of her character, you think it's going to go one way, and within just one scene, it's completely subverted. Every direction her character took felt completely justified, and her chemistry with Conor was especially great to watch. It's another situation where on paper, it doesn't feel like it should work, but it so totally does translated to the movie.
 |
| Lucy Boynton as Raphina |
Ian Kenny plays a great bully, but what I love about the character is how few typical 'bully actions' the character takes in the film. Also, there's no real 'fighting back' defining moment for Conor, and the way the film treats Barry is actually really good to see. Realistically, Baxter is a far bigger bully than Barry, and the way the film handles both characters is great to watch. But, my favourite character in the movie by far is Brendan. The film is almost written around this brother relationship, and it's absolutely flawless. He works as a mentor figure for Conor, and it's great listening to them talk about music and giving really well-needed advice about the band. He doesn't sugar coat it, but he also doesn't slam him for no reason just because 'brothers'. You can also tell that Brendan really wishes the best for Conor, and is genuinely impressed by him, which leads into my favourite scene in the entire movie: Brendan's speech to Conor about 'macheteing down the jungle for Conor to walk through'. Jack Reynor plays the role great throughout the entire movie, but this was his defining moment, and what I love about this scene is that it shows that it's not the perfect relationship two brothers like this would have in basically any other movie. In fact, the best thing this movie does is not treat itself like any other movie. The way it follows up an emotional moment with a comedic one without taking the wind out of the sails of the emotional moment is masterful, especially when leaning too far one way or the other can ruin the entire thing.
 |
| Jack Reynor as Brendan |
Guys, I can't even really nitpick with this one. I loved everything about Sing Street (2016), and I'm immensely happy to have watched it. You should absolutely check it out if you haven't already. Legitimately one of the best movies I've seen. 10/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment