Sing Street (2016)

In January, I messed up. I accidentally watched what I still consider to be my favourite movie made in 2016 one month into the new year. Do I call it my favourite movie of 2016? Is it my favourite movie of 2017? Will I ever stop attempting to force people to watch Sing Street with me?

With all of the 2016 hype around La La Land, it seems like people forgot about the much smaller scale musical that was Sing Street. It's a goddamn tragedy. I have no real feelings about John Carney as a filmmaker - I haven’t seen Once or Begin Again - but I was so pleasantly swept up in this movie, which oozed the feel-good vibes that people credited to La La Land despite never being there. 

The music was outstanding and the evocation of an 80s nostalgia on the Irish climate of the time. The fact that this didn't get nominated for any original song Oscars is still an outrage - to this day, "Up" and "Drive it Like You Stole It" feature heavily on my playlists. The characters are charming and multi-faceted but also full of angst in a way that feels authentically young and disenfranchised. I wish Raphina was given a little more time and handled differently occasionally, but I’m always going to wish that for female leads. My entire heart went out to several characters, and that's something I feel indicates strongly towards good writing and characterisation. There is sadness and real melancholy buried beneath the electric synth pop and teenage experimentation.

I originally wrote in my review that this movie was not going to trigger any deeper discussions, but the last six months have proved me wrong. It's been a perfect example of how an objectively imperfect movie can be a favourite and can provoke a lot of deeper thought without being preachy. Depending on the different people I've watched this movie with, different elements have stuck out for discussion. My friend had really strong feelings about the original music, my grandmother had a lot of thoughts about how the representation of 80s Ireland resonated so strongly with her own experience - my personal takeaway was more to do with the lines between fantasy and reality. One of my initial problems with the movie was the abruptness of the ending and how neatly it tied up everything, but on rewatching I grew more aware of the ways in which the movie plays with fantasy sequencing and the ambiguity of the cinematography in the final shots. There's also some lovely foreshadowing that really resonated with me.

Rating: 9/10 - I adored Sing Street. I felt genuinely uplifted at the end, without having felt like the movie was silly and without substance. That kind of cinema experience is so rare that it deserves celebration, and it has been replicated with every rewatch. It's not a perfect movie: it has moments of abruptness and characters who are underdeveloped; but it's got excellent music and real feelings and great performances and it made a stronger impression on me than anything else has this year and it's one of the most watched DVDs in my collection already.