This film was really, really great! Uplifting with just the right dose of melancholy threatening to bring it all down at the edges. It's got a talented cast, some well-drawn characters, and songs that are actually enjoyable (too many movies about bands have terrible songs that make you question the whole thing - not here).
I'm so glad I watched it.
The advantages of a Director who is himself a musician! As you liked this you would probably also enjoy his earlier films 'Once' and 'Begin Again'...
I've heard about Once a lot - mostly positive. And I thought the trailer for Begin Again looked quite intriguing. Thanks for the recommendations.
shareBegin Again is really underrated film, I think it's the least spoken about from the director's three music based films. But it has great cast, although I know the director didn't seem to get along with Kiera Knightley going by interviews. Music is good, and the acting especially form Mark Ruffalo is great. really underrated gem.
Everyone pretty much knows Once and Sing Street i would assume. They were pretty popular especially Once.
sing street is one of my genuinely favourite films (#10 on my all-time list), but i think begin again is a bit of a mixed bag. i think the songs are great (some written by the new radicals' gregg alexander, who really knows his way around a melody), ruffalo is reliably fun & relatable.
but i found it a great deal less involving than once or sing street. i just didn't care about model-beautiful knightley the way i did about those kids in sing street. & i hated james corden every single second he was on the screen, & think that is one of the most annoying screen roles i've seen in years.
it's absolutely worth seeing, it's certainly in no way a bad film in my books, but to me it's no where close to the kind of triumph that sing street was.
'Once' remains my favorite of the three, but they're definitely all worth watching!
shareAgree! I enjoyed it. Really captured the vibe of the early 80s. Sure it was far fetched but it felt like watching someone’s romanticized memory of their youth.
shareIf this was someone's romanticized memory of their youth, that might explain the dreadful ending!
Maybe the writer did something similar as a kid, and the situation wasn't the disaster it'd have been for 99.99999999999% of kids who run off to an uncertain and undocumented future.
Take it at face value and don’t try to think about the raw reality “what ifs”. It’s an Irish pub story that needed a “sailed off into the sunset” ending. Here are some
positive what-ifs:
Their boat followed the wake of the ferry which broke up the choppiness so they safely arrived in Wales
So what if they worked at McDonalds in Cardiff then hitched a ride to London.
Wales is a musical country. The people there would probably help out young talented kids.
Sorry, the only way I can turn off the realistic and practical part of my brain at the movies, is to introduce magical or Fantasy elements, such as superhero powers. And even then, I wonder how Captain America pays his rent, who pays him - SHIELD? How much do they pay him, if he lives in a cheap apartment? Doesn't Tony Stark pay the team's personal expenses?
Anyway! Since this film here is very much about poverty, its effects, and the crushing hopelessness it brings, the film has placed itself in a world where "Hollywood endings" don't happen. I mean if they're running to the UK and not the US, they'll have a social safety net and might not end up on the streets, like they would in the US, but the odds are they're running from poverty to poverty. Plus, the ending made me feel betrayed because it was about kids forming a band that was actually good... and the one kid broke up the band at the end. I mean, dude!
For me, part of what makes this film unique is that it blends '80s optimism and cheese-ball "We can do it!" with the actual realities of the world. It feels like a movie that's about following a dream, even though you know it'll be really hard and might not work out the way you thought. The older brother's storyline is sorta there to underline that aspect of the picture.
The ending worked for me because it was bittersweet and imperfect and uncertain. The only certainty was that the main character was going to give 100% and really go for broke.
As for why he didn't stay with the band, yeah... I get that, that was sorta weird. But, the impression I got was that he was going to make this really bold move and either couldn't ask his mates to take that risk or he knew they wouldn't come or would talk him out of it. This was a move he needed to do for himself. It's another bittersweet element, and to me it kinda mimicked the way that real-life bands don't always work, people move through them - especially when young.
I love your enthusiasm for the movie! I feel the same way about this great picture!
I also like that the movie isn't afraid to show us a low-candy-coating version of this story. Yes, it's got loopy elements like how good the songs sound (their first song of the gate is way too tight for a band of junior high kids who played together for an afternoon), but it also gives us the sharp edges where there is no guaranteed perfect ending. It's just this kid and his girlfriend willing to give dreaming a great, big shot. It might wind up bad. He might wind up with music as a side gig. Anything could happen. But he's trying.
A good Sunday movie.
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