Plot Summary
Dublin 1985,
15-year-old Conor Lalor was in his bedroom playing guitar while mimicking his parents’ argument in his song lyrics. In a family meeting later, down in the kitchen, Conor’s father announced that Conor had to move to a free state high school due to family’s financial problems. Brendan, Conor’s oldest brother seemed to oppose but had no other solution.
Conor began his new term at a Christian Brothers School located on Synge Street. He met the school’s principal, Brother Baxter, who told him about the school’s strict policy such as wearing black shoes. Later, Conor then met a bully, Barry, who forced him to dance in the bathroom. During lunch, Conor bought a chocolate from the school’s canteen and got it taken by Barry, who also punched Conor in the face. This lead to Conor meeting Darren, a small but smart boy.
As Conor and Darren left school, Conor saw a beautiful girl across the street. Despite of the fact the she had no interest in the school’s boys, Conor approached her and introduced himself. She said her name was Raphina and she’s a model. Conor lied to her saying that he needed a girl to be in a video for his band (neither was Conor in a band or had filmed a video). After Conor sang a song, Raphina agreed to be in the video. Conor then ran back to Darren and said that they needed to form a band-immediately.
Darren took Conor to meet Eamon, who was gifted playing most instruments. Eamon even had all the instruments needed for a band from drum, guitars to piano. They decided that Eamon would be the band’s bass guitar. The boys then recruited a black boy and two other boys from the school. Darren acted as the band’s manager and cameraman as well while Conor would be the main singer and a songwriter. They decided the band’s name would be “Sing Street.”
The band’s first video was a cover of Duran Duran’s Rio (Duran Duran was an English band and very famous in the ’80s and ’90s.) But Conor’s brother, Brendan, said it was crap and encouraged them to write their own songs and created their own styles, not just mimicking.
Conor, with help from Eamon, then wrote the band’s first original song. It called “The Riddle of Model.” When they was going to film a video for the song on a street corner, Raphina arrived and insisted on doing make-up for the boys. After the shoot, Conor gave Raphina a ride back home on his bike. He then knew that Raphina was living at an orphanage for girls because her dad had died in a car accident while her mom had been in and out of the mental hospital.
The Sing Street band then went on to make some other creative and brilliant videos as the relationship between Conor and Raphina was getting closer and closer.
Conor’s parents one day decided to tell their children that they were about to split up as the mother had fallen in love with her boss. Although it was foreseen, Brendan was angry and Conor knew more things about his eldest brother who couldn’t pursue his dream just because his parents didn’t let him do it (go to Germany all alone).
Toward the end, there some problem in the relationship between Conor and Raphina as she left to London with her boyfriend (a mature guy – did I mentioned that Raphina was one year older than Conor?) as the band was practising the video for its latest song. Conor later spotted Raphina returning to the orphanage home with a bruise on her cheek. After a small takk, Conor then left Raphina as she said things hurting him.
The band then had a successful performance at the school gig after recruiting Barry (the “bully boy”) as their security guy. One of their song that made the crowd super excited was about Brother Baxter-the bully. Raphina showed up late, then Conor and Raphina left the gig to run straight back to Conor’s home and asked Brendan to drive them to their grandfather’s boat so that the couple can head out to London pursuing their dreams as artists. Brendan agreed as he wanted his younger brother do what he couldn’t do before. Despite of heavy rain, the two managed to come across the ship to England.
What’s in it for me
I love this movie and its meaning message for the youth – “Don’t do anything by half” and always pursue your dream.
The movie also presents some of social issues such as school bullying. Bullies are everywhere from streets to schools and can be anyone from schoolboys to school’s principles. But, there’s always a story behind a bully. For example, Barry became a bully at school because he is treated as an idiot at home and always beaten by his father.
Again, we can see the role of parents in the development of kids’ characteristics. Barry’s father’s to his son, Eamon’s mother’s to her son, etc. Conor’s parents although are well-educated people, they never let their children “fly away” from them because they love them too much. That’s the reason Brendan has to give up his dream and always stay inside the house until his parents were about to break up. Sometimes, parents need to know what their children really want, not forcing the children do what the parents want.
TV’s role is also mentioned in the movie as we can see a lot of videos from the ’70s and ’80s bands somehow affect Conor’s band’s song videos. But, while mentioning this issue, the movie in fact has a bad effect on children because we can see kids smoking in the film and they look “cool.”
The music in this movie is simply great! Music is also seen being used as an escape from life’s troubles.
Who’s in the movie
Director:
John Carney. Carney won many awards at British and Irish Film Festival He’s also known for Once (2007), Begin Again (2013).
Stars:
Ferdia Walsh-Peelo as Conor. Before this film, Walsh-Peelo starred in a TV series named WGN Morning News.
Lucy Boynton as Raphina. Boynton was nominated for Best Performance in a Feature Film – Supporting Young Actress at Young Artist Awards with Miss Potter (2006)
Ratings
People like this movie should watch
The Commitments (1991)
Once (2007)
Everybody wants some (2016)
Begin Again (2013)
Rory O’shea was here (2004)
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