If you have been following me on twitter you saw yesterday I tweeted like 5 times about how much I loved a little movie I saw called Sing Street. Today I did my youtube review and I wanted to tell you about it because it really is special.

Sing Street is directed by John Carney who made Once and Begin Again. I enjoyed Once but wasn’t a big fan of Begin Again. You can read my review if you want. I felt the conceit was too similar to Once but not as good and the Kiera Knightley character was too pretentious. However, I have none of those problems with Sing Street.  In fact, I like it much  more than Once!

To start with Sing Street is PG-13 where Once is a pretty hard R so that is a nice change of pace but I liked the characters and music more here than in Once.

Anyway, let me tell you about the film. It is set in 1985 Dublin, Ireland and stars Ferdia Walsh-Peelo as Conor, a boy who is forced to change schools to a rougher part of town. He meets a girl named Raphina played by Lucy Boynton who catches his eye.  She wants to be a model in London and isn’t going to school.  To get her phone number he tells her he is in a band and that he needs her to be in his music video.

At first as a cover he gets his friends together to form a band and slowly they become more invested in the project and he turns out to be a decent little song writer.

He is encouraged and helped by his world-wise brother Brendan played by Jack Reynor. I loved their dialogue and relationship.  It felt authentic and the way brothers really talk. You felt for Brendan and his missed opportunities and you also could tell how much he loved his brother (and maybe resented him a little too).

Everything about this movie worked for me. I loved all the performances. Conor’s parents are going through a divorce and I thought that was handled very well. The relationship between Conor and Raphina builds slowly through the film and the friendship between all the band members feels genuine.

And I loved the music! I have already downloaded the soundtrack and have listened to it  many times. There are classic 80s rock songs and also original songs played by the band- all great!

I loved the dialogue. It looks nice and I liked the story. I loved this movie. That’s all there is too it.  Go see it! I saw it in an early screening and it isn’t currently playing by me but as son as it is I want to see it again.

Overall Grade- A+

Here’s the trailer