Sing Street

Plot

In south inner-city Dublin in 1985, Robert Lawlor (Aidan Gillen) is struggling with his architecture practice and his marriage, and drinks and smokes to excess. At a family meeting, he announces that in order to save money he is taking his youngest son Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) out of his expensive fee-paying school and moving him to a free state-school, Synge Street CBS, which Robert asserts is of equally high repute. Conor's elder brother Brendan (Jack Reynor) ribs him about the change as well as about the state of the family unit.

Conor appears in school on the first day in his new uniform, but without the regulation black shoes. The school principal Br. Baxter (Don Wycherley), takes him to task for this despite Conor’s pleas of being unable to afford new black shoes, eventually forcing him to complete the day shoeless. The shoe problem is resolved by painting the shoes black using paint from the art room. An encounter with the school bully, Barry (Ian Kenny) introduces Conor to Darren (Ben Carolan), an ally and budding entrepreneur. When Conor tells the beautiful aspiring model, Raphina (Lucy Boynton), in order to impress her, that he needs a model for a music video his band is making, Darren agrees to manage the outfit and introduces him to multi-instrumentalist Eamon (Mark McKenna )

The band practise in Eamon's living room, playing a bunch of 1980s covers. Conor however has a sibling-induced epiphany when Brendan encourages him to drop the covers and develop the band's own style. He begins writing original songs with Eamon. The band film their first music video for their song "The Riddle of the Model", wearing a motley assortment of often comical costumes, with Raphina acting as ingenue and makeup artist. Raphina gives Conor the name "Cosmo", which she says is more in keeping with his new band's image and the band continues to write and record new songs. After spending the day filming a music video for a new song, Conor and Raphina kiss and exchange confidences. Conor also manages to stand up to Barry by pointing out the insignificance of his life as well as his own, which greatly upsets Barry.

At home Robert and Penny (Maria Doyle Kennedy)'s marriage is falling apart, while Raphina and Cosmo's relationship blossoms. Cosmo takes Raphina out to Dalkey Island in his granddad's motor cruiser. Here they view the car ferry leaving Dún Laoghaire for Britain and discuss Raphina's dream of leaving Ireland for London.

Cosmo, Raphina, and the band then prepare to film a "Back to the Future" inspired music video for their new song, "Drive It Like You Stole It", but Cosmo is disheartened when Raphina fails to show up. Later, she reveals that she was set to leave for London with her boyfriend that day, but he abandoned her. Deeply hurt by her lack of disclosure and becoming even more offended by her nonchalance, Cosmo breaks up with Raphina. Because of the break-up, along with his family's problems, Cosmo finds difficulty in writing or playing music, but Brendan urges Cosmo to carry on so that at least he can escape his small-town doldrums and make a better future for himself. An opportunity arises for the band to play live at an end of year party at school. Cosmo manages to strike a friendship with Barry, offering him the chance to be the band's roadie and escape the physically and emotionally abusive relationship he has with his alcoholic father, which he accepts.

Cosmo prepares a new song, "Brown Shoes", mocking Baxter, which the band perform as an encore while distributing homemade masks of Baxter’s face. Raphina arrives before the band finishes their song and reconciles with Cosmo, and both of them leave the party and the school in uproar. After secretly saying his goodbyes to his family later that night, Cosmo and Raphina persuade Brendan to drive them to Dalkey so they can escape in the motor cruiser and head to London. Brendan agrees and drives them to the harbour, where Brendan and Cosmo exchange an emotional embrace. Cosmo and Raphina sail out to sea, following the ferry across the rough Irish Sea to a new life in London. Brendan watches them disappear into the distance and cheers, overjoyed that his younger brother has left to go on to greater things.

Dedication

The film's closing titles include the dedication "For brothers everywhere".

Development

In February 2014, It was announced that John Carney would be directing the film, from a screenplay he wrote about a boy starting a band in order to impress a girl, with Carney producing through his Distressed Films banner, along with Anthony Bregman through his Likely Story Banner, Kevin Frakes for PalmStar Media, and Raj Brinder Singh for Merced Media Partners, with Paul Trijbits and Christian Grass for FilmWave. The film is a semi-autobiographical depiction of Carney's upbringing in Dublin.

Casting

In a July 2014 interview, Carney announced he would be casting unknown actors in the film. The unknown actors turned out to be Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Ben Carolan, Mark McKenna, Percy Chamburuka, Conor Hamilton, Karl Rice, and Ian Kenny. In September 2014, it was announced that Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy, and Jack Reynor had joined the cast of the film, portraying the role of a father, wife and son respectively.

Filming

Principal photography on the film began in September 2014 in Dublin, Ireland, and concluded on 25 October 2014. Among the locations where the film was shot was at its namesake school Synge Street CBS.

Music

Much of the original music by the band "Sing Street" was composed by Danny Wilson frontman Gary Clark, with Carney, Ken and Carl Papenfus of the band Relish, Graham Henderson and Zamo Riffman also receiving writing credits. Adam Levine co-wrote (with Carney and Glen Hansard) and sings on the track "Go Now".

The film also features music of the period from The Cure, A-ha, Duran Duran, The Clash, Hall & Oates, Spandau Ballet, and The Jam.

Soundtrack

The movie soundtrack album was released by Decca Records on 18 March 2016. The track listing is as follows:

1. "Rock N Roll Is a Risk" (Dialogue) – Jack Reynor
2. "Stay Clean" – Motörhead
3. "The Riddle of the Model" – Sing Street
4. "Rio" – Duran Duran
5. "Up" – Sing Street
6. "To Find You" – Sing Street
7. "Town Called Malice" – The Jam
8. "In Between Days" – The Cure
9. "A Beautiful Sea" – Sing Street
10. "Maneater" – Hall & Oates
11. "Steppin' Out" – Joe Jackson
12. "Drive It Like You Stole It" – Sing Street
13. "Up" (Bedroom Mix) – Sing Street
14. "Pop Muzik" – M
15. "Girls" – Sing Street
16. "Brown Shoes" – Sing Street
17. "Go Now" – Adam Levine
18. "Up" – The Score
19. "Drive It Like You Stole It" – Hudson Thames

Release

In February 2014, it was announced that FilmNation Entertainment had been selected to sell international rights to the film. In May 2014, it was announced The Weinstein Company had acquired U.S distribution rights to the film, for $3 million.

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2016. The film screened at the Dublin Film Festival on 18 February 2016, and at South by Southwest on 11 March 2016. The film was released in Ireland on 17 March, and in the United Kingdom on 20 May 2016. It was released in the United States on 15 April 2016.

Box office

Sing Street grossed $3.2 million in the United States and Canada and $10.4 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $13.6 million.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 172 reviews and an average rating of 8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Sing Street is a feel-good musical with huge heart and irresistible optimism, and its charming cast and hummable tunes help to elevate its familiar plotting." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 79 out of 100 based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Guy Lodge of Variety.com gave the film a positive review, writing "Perched on a tricky precipice between chippy kitchen-sink realism and lush wish-fulfilment fantasy, this mini-Commitments gets away with even its cutesiest indulgences thanks to a wholly lovable ensemble of young Irish talent and the tightest pop tunes—riffing on Duran Duran and the Cure with equal abandon and affection—any gaggle of Catholic schoolboys could hope to write themselves. Given the right marketing and word of mouth, this Weinstein Co. release could Sing a song of far more than sixpence."

In The Observer, Mark Kermode gave the film four out of five stars, writing: "When it comes to capturing the strange, romantic magic of making music, few modern film-makers are more on the money than John Carney." He added, "The bittersweet, 'happy sad' drama that follows has drawn inevitable, if misguided, comparisons with The Commitments, yet tonally this is closer to the teen spirit of Todd Graff's 2009 film Bandslam [...] or even Richard Linklater’s sublime School of Rock. As Carney has proved previously, he knows how to straddle the line between the sound in the room and the sound in your head – a sequence that segues from bedroom composition to living room rehearsal (with tea and biscuits) to full studio production perfectly negotiates the space between kitchen-sink realism and musical fantasy in which this lovely, lyrical movie casts its spell". Kermode concluded by saying, "Happy sad indeed. I laughed, I cried, I bought the soundtrack album."

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 8 August 2016.