Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is a high school kid growing up in gritty Dublin, 1985. He, his brother Brendan (Jack Reynor) and sister Ann (Kelly Thornton) groan as they sit through yet another family meeting at which their father informs them that, due to an adverse turn in their financial situation, there will be a tightening of the purse strings. More particularly for Conor, this will necessitate his transferring from a Jesuit school to an inferior one run by the Christian Brothers and its heartless headmaster, Brother Baxter (Don Wycherley). This designation of inferiority will be the first of many digs thrown at the Brothers by writer-director John Carney.
Conor gets off to a bumpy start at Synge Street, his rough and tumble school. As he walks through the schoolyard on his first day, he clearly appears more clean cut, polished and refined than his peers. He is targeted physically by a bully, Barry (Ian Kenny), and is called on the carpet by Brother Baxter for wearing brown, not the required black, shoes. The heartless authoritarian cares not that the student's family cannot afford new shoes. Rather than giving the new kid at least a day's reprieve, the evil Baxter orders Conor to go the rest of the day in stocking feet.
The first mate whom Conor befriends at Synge Street is a diminutive red headed boy named Darren (Ben Carolan). Darren is one of the sharpest kids in the class, a keen observer of social relationships and playground politics. When he points out to Conor that the attractive, mysterious girl standing on the steps across the yard has been hanging out there for days, Conor decides to make his move. Trying his best to act cool in front of this beauty whose aura is initially distant, he tells her a white lie, viz., that his band is putting the finishing touches on a song recording and they need an actress for the accompanying video. Of course this is untrue because, for starters, Conor is not in a band at all -- hence, the aforementioned twist. He does not even play or own an instrument. The girl, who we find out later is Raphina (Lucy Boynton), claims to be a model, so starring in a video might further her career. In a non-committal way she tells Conor she'll listen to the taped recording and will try to show up for the shoot. Of course, she does, and a deeper connection between the leads ensues.
Darren foresees his role as that of an agent/manager, which is fine except the nascent band still needs musicians. Ordinarily this would take some doing, but not according to Carney's script. First on board is Eamon (Mark McKenna), who not only is an accomplished guitarist but also a talented song writer. The scenes of collaboration between Conor and Eamon at the latter's home bring back images of Lennon and McCartney doing the same thing two decades before at Mendips in Liverpool. As a bonus, actor McKenna's visage strongly resembles Lennon's from his teenage years. If this development seems a stroke of good fortune, consider the band's next acquisition, which is the recruitment of multi-instrumentalist Ngig (Percy Chamburuka). He excels on at least a half dozen instruments, and owns them too! His bedroom resembles a music store. (I would insert "only in Hollywood" at this point, except Carney is an Irishman and the film was shot in Dublin.) It's all in good fun. We must have a band because that's what Conor represented to Raphina. The boys name their band Sing Street, a play on words with reference to their school.
In a movie filled with good ones, my favorite side character is Conor's brother Brendan. He fancies himself as a music aficionado, and his shelf crammed with vinyl LPs backs that up. Brendan gives Conor a fair amount of ribbing and sarcasm, as older brothers are wont to do, but also renders useful advice about how to make this new venture, Sing Street, a go. Brendan steers Conor to a more sophisticated sound, like Duran Duran, the Cure and the Clash. Conor even changes his look with hair dye and makeup to denote his evolving musical influences. Brendan realizes over time that though he and Conor had both hoped for a way out of their forlorn situation, which has become exacerbated by the crumbling of their parents' marriage, Conor actually now has within his grasp an opportunity that he should pursue, the type of opportunity that has passed Brendan by.
What would a story about high school be without a dance in the school gymnasium? We've seen them before (e.g., 1976's Carrie, Pretty In Pink from 1986, etc.). Sing Street gives us a back-to-back double dose, with the first dance being a dream sequence in which all the subplots, such as the parents' marriage failure and the cruelty of Brother Baxter, reach a happy conclusion. That scene is quite original, the best four minutes in the film.
The marketing promotions for Sing Street capitalize on the connection of the current movie to 2007's Once, which Carney also directed. Similarities between the films are evident, most notably the theme of music being the catalyst to draw two young people together. But don't be fooled into thinking that Sing Street is just a warmed over Once. While the older movie's music was mostly comprised of acoustic ballads, the new film's tunes are full-band plugged-in pop. The soundtrack includes a generous helping of seventeen songs, eight of which are top notch Sing Street originals. One of the best, The Riddle Of The Model, appears early on, and fittingly describes Conor's infatuation with the model he has just met, Raphina. During their initial conversation, she poignantly tells Conor, "You're not good at pretending to be happy when you are sad." Thanks to his writing and vocal skills, Conor no longer has to pretend.
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