Filmmaker and former frontman for the Irish band "The Frames" John Carney completes his ode-to-music trilogy with "Sing Street" — following the star-studded "Begin Again" in 2013 and the excellent but underrated "Once" in 2007.
Carney's stories have sold us the idea that the will to make music solves life's problems and generates a deep and lasting joy. Up until this installment, though the boy may have got the music but he never got the girl. They always cared about each other and were united in their love for music, and Carney left it at that. In "Sing Street," however, there's a chance for love to prevail. It feels like Carney's characters are finally getting the fate they deserve, and that's not just a demo tape and career prospects.
The year is 1985 and youths around the world are agog at the awesomely cool, brand-new phenomenon known as the music video. In Dublin, for brothers Brendan (Jack Reynor) and the younger Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), music videos keep them sane and able to face the dreariness of life. Brendan has dropped out of school and hangs around getting stoned, while family issues result in Conor being pulled out of a private school and transferred to the local Catholic school, controlled by sadistic priests and thug students.