Sing Street follows Cosmo (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), a teenager in 1980s Dublin as he tries to start a band to impress Raphina (Lucy Boynton) an older girl and aspiring model. Don’t let the simple premise fool you. His journey creates one of the best and most heart felt movies I’ve seen this year.
Ferdia Walsh-Peelo’s Cosmo is the center of the movie. He is a typical teenager in a lot of ways: A bit of a wise ass, awkward, and a little rebellious. But most importantly he is a dreamer. But that dream isn’t obvious to him at first.
We get to see Cosmo grow into a songwriter. The band, Sing Street, is only a means to an end that turns into something more. Getting to that “something more” is the heart of the movie and it’s amazing to watch Cosmo come into his own.
Boynton’s Raphina is much more than the “object” of Cosmo’s affection. At first, she is just a pretty face that treats Cosmo as little kid. But, like Cosmo, she evolves in a believable way. That false confidence she flaunts early in the movie falls away slowly as she sees that she and Cosmo want the same thing: Follow a seemingly impossible dream.
Their relationship is believable because it’s treated like a young romance. It’s not a “crappy teenage rom-com” type of over the top romance. There is the tunnel vision, the awkwardness, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and all of the weirdness that comes from a teenage romance.
Jack Reynor is amazing as Cosmo’s older brother Brendan. He acts as Cosmo’s musical coach in our hero’s journey to “get the girl.” He provides a lot of the humor, but he also has an emotional scene. He is almost as likable as Cosmo.
My only complaint is that we don’t get a whole lot of time with the Sing Street band itself. The band’s “manager” Darren (Ben Carolan) and co-writer/guitarist Eamon (Mark McKenna) have some awesome moments, but very little screen time.
The soundtrack…Oh wow, this soundtrack. Maybe it’s because I love the genre they use (1980s New Wave and Pop Rock), but it is so amazing. The original songs are loving tributes to the songs they ape and fit perfectly as well. I ‘m normally not a fan of musicals, but I love the way this movie weaves the music into the narrative. It could also be the quality of the original songs. They will become ear candy and get stuck in your head.
The music videos for these songs are fun as well. As the band’s quality evolves, so do the videos they shoot. The sequence around the writing of “Up” is a personal favorite of mine. I honestly felt like cheering because of the way it came together. The bittersweet video for “Drive It Like You Stole It” is great as well.
But most important is this movie’s message: Dreams. This Dublin is full of people with shattered or stalled dreams. Cosmo and Raphina are surrounded by what-ifs and could-have-beens. There is a beautiful sequence involving Cosmo’s mother that I won’t ruin here, but it exemplifies the idea of “What if” perfectly.
But as Brendan tells his brother, “Rock and Roll is risk.” To escape the rules and misery surrounding them, Cosmo and Raphina can’t just sit around and be miserable. To follow that dream, they have to risk it all. They may or may not get that happy ending, but at least take the chance.
If you have ever had a dream, this movie will make you want to follow it even more.
SCORE: 9 out of 10