Writer-director John Carney (Once) continues to mine the deep musical reservoir that fuels memories and emotions in the souls of audiences. With Sing Street, he digs into the 1980s, tracking the adventures of Cosmo (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), a Dublin lad dealing with troubles on the home front as his squabbling parents (Maria Doyle Kennedy and Aidan Gillen) head toward an inevitable breakup. Cosmo, when forced to change schools, locks eyes on the worldly Raphina (Lucy Boynton) and decides that the only way to win her heart is by writing songs that speak to her, so he starts a band with a group of outcast dreamers that bounces across the pop spectrum in search of an identity. Carney fashions Sing Street as a more innocent version of The Commitments and succeeds, in large part due to the wide-eyed purity of Walsh-Peelo that gradually morphs into teenage rebellion without becoming jaded. Audiences with memories of the 1980s will surely find themselves humming right along with all the right sentiments. (Opens Friday at Esquire Theatre) (PG-13) Grade: B+
This article appears in Apr 27 – May 4, 2016.
