SING STREET
Ireland, 2016, 106 minutes, Colour.
Ferdia Walsh Peelo, Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Jack Reynor, Lucy Boynton, Kelly Thornton, Ben Carolan, Mark Mc Kenna, Percy Chamburuka, Ian Kenny, Don Wycherley
Directed by John Carney.
Audiences will find this a generally cheerful film, a story about five young adolescents and their desire to make music. The setting is the 1980s and there are plenty of songs from the popular groups of that period and a number of new songs – in the vein of those times. The writer-director of Sing Street, John Carney, aspired to be a musician when he was young. He then played in a band and once he became a film director, also concentrated on films with music and song, the very popular Once (which became an award-winning theatre piece) and Begin Again. It would not be surprising to find Sing Street on theatre stages in years to come.
John Carney is Irish which gives a particular flavour to the film. In his screenplay, he is reminiscing about his times at Catholic school in the mid-1980s, at a Christian Brothers school. It is easy to see that there were many aspects of the school that he did not like and had a very dim view of the Brother Principal of the school who becomes a target of his dislike, his satire, and his culminating song and demonstration in protest against the Brother.
Times were difficult in Ireland. the opening focuses on how many people, young and old, were leaving Ireland, especially for the UK. Conor (Ferdia Walsh Peelo) has been at a Jesuit high school but his father is out of work, times are hard, and Conor has to go to the local Christian Brothers’ high School. Almost immediately, the humourless and rather heartless Principal demands that Conor wear black shoes (which his family can’t afford). The principal reads the letter of the law, the hundred plus pages of regulations, insisting on complete obedience to rules. Later, when Conor wear some make up like members of the bands of the time, he demands the removal, using physical violence against Conor.
Catholic audiences will be more than a bit sensitive to this presentation of the Brothers – while most audiences will take the severity for granted.
So, audiences can concentrate on Conor, his infatuation with a girl who lives in an institutional house near the school, Raphina (Lucy Boynton), deciding to form a band so that she can appear in music videos. He does form a band, a cheeky young boy at school promoting himself as a fixer and as a manager. They do make several music videos. And there is a sympathetic boy who is a master of many musical instruments with a talent for composition and improvisation. They go for multicultural with an African-Irish? young boy, also a good musician, and two other young lads who read the advertisement and more than fulfil the requirements.
Lots of rehearsal scenes, plenty of verve in the playing, Conor deciding that he will be the lead singer, writing the lyrics, testing out his songs with Raphina, and with a collage of the styles of so many of the popular bands, the variety of clothes, hairstyles, make up, that the boys take on.
Conor’s family background is also played well, with Aidan Gillett and Maria Doyle Kennedy as his squabbling parents, and Jack Raynor, very sympathetic, as his stoner brother who has opted out of life despite his expensive Jesuit education.
There are two climactic sequences, one in Conor’s imagination, the other at the final school dance. In the former, everybody is there, the band playing, everyone dancing, his parents happy, Raphina coming in, and even the Brother Principal full of zest doing cartwheels across the floor. However, while the final gig is very successful for Conor and his band, he does have a plan to confront the Brother, attack and humiliate him with everybody wearing masks of his face and singing some pungent lyrics criticising him.
What is left for Conor and Raphina but for Conor to commandeer his grandfather’s speedboat and take to the high seas for a future in Britain? It seems more than a bit far-fetched, but it is based on John Carney story and his success.
1. An Irish story? A youth story? A musical story?
2. The director, his Irish background, his schooling in the 1980s, attitude towards the Christian Brothers, his love of music, his work in a band, his film direction, his musical themes?
3. The blend of nostalgia and memories of discontent? Ireland, the ferries to the UK, 1985, life in Dublin, difficulties with money, unemployment, families, education?
4. The look of the period, the homes, streets, schools? The band and practice? Making the videos in the streets, at the wharf, the water, at school? Costumes and decor? The costumes adapting to the bands of the period and their style?
5. The 1980s, bands, the significant groups, MTV and its style, music, instruments, lyrics? The look and changes? Popularity? Fast songs, slow songs? The excerpts from the classics of the time?
6. The new songs, their spirit, writing for Raphina? Autobiographical songs? The song attacking the Brother?
7. Conor, aged 15, his background at the Jesuit College, transferring to the local high school, the Christian Brothers? His place in the family, his squabbling parents? Their love for him? His older brother, Anne her studies, his uniform for the school, the brown shoes? The Principal, the rule for black shoes, the book of regulations, Conor, taking his shoes off, walking in the puddle? Later blackening them himself?
8. Barry, the scenes of bullying, punching,? Later seeing Barry with his father, his father’s brutality towards him? The positive element – inviting Barry after his being humiliated to be their roadie? Seeing him in action when they played?
9. Conor seeing Rufino, talking, saying she wanted to be a model, the invitation to be in the videos, his having to form a band? Her living in the home, her absent parents? Coming to the filming, comments on make up, her performance, her coming again, her talking to her boyfriend, Conor’s infatuation? The plan to go to London, and not going? Trying to pretend she was her younger sister? Conor taking her on the boat trip? Her being stranded, listening to Conor’s music, going to the performance? Their talking, the bond, the kiss, the decision to go to England, his brother’s help, taking the boat, onto the high seas and a future?
10. The boy as manager, short, brash, his style? Solving problems? Their finding the musician, his extraordinary talent, the instruments, at his home, his mother and her support?
11. Finding the black boy, his mother, his joining the band, playing the instruments? The two boys looking at the notice, their being accepted, their skills? Conor, his creating the lyrics, the musical arrangements with the musician? Singing, the tapes, videos? The change of clothes, hairstyles, his look? the make up, the Principal attacking him, offering him his toilet to take the make up off – and the information to the audience of the Brothers and sexual abuse? His washing off the make up?
12. The brothers, the Christian Brothers, the old man and his teaching Latin, younger Brother supervising at the dance?
13. Conor’s home, the parents squabbling, his mother’s affair, their splitting, talking with the children? Where they should live? The plan to sell the house, the repairs, the advertisement? The personalities?
14. The older brother, his age, Jesuit education, a slacker, pot smoking, composition, at home, his records, discussions with Conor, partly educating him in music, encouraging him? The discussions about music? His depression? The final help, farewelling him at the wharf?
15. Conor, his age, achievement, assertiveness, going to the UK? Important scene of his imagination, everybody happy, everybody dancing, his mother and father, Raphina, even the Principal and his doing cartwheels? The contrast with the final performance, the range of songs, the students and their response, his getting the masks from the photocopier, cutting them out, distributing them to everyone? Everyone putting them on, the humiliation of the Principal, the words of the lyrics attacking him?
16. The film with touches of nostalgia attached – and some exorcism of the past?
