I'm Pete Wright.

And I'm Andy Nelson.

Welcome to the next reel.

When the movie ends,

our conversation begins.

Sing street is over.

You're just material from my songs.

Oh, Andy, it's the third.

Oh, are you sad a little bit that that we're leaving Carney?

Well, I I will say, I am sad now that I've re enjoyed these three films that you had on this list.

I am sad that you didn't include Florence on to give me an excuse to watch it because I still have yet to watch that one.

It'll have to be a bonus.

I have yet to watch it too.

I completely spaced that it existed.

And then I I thought Steve and JJ talked about it and didn't care for it as much at one point, and so I I allowed it to slip from my memory.

Yeah.

But anyhow, this is Sing Street.

This is the third in our Streetwise musicals series from John Carney, and this is, for my money, the best of the three.

And I think it's the best of the three because it incorporates all of the stuff that I like from the other two movies with the, I I think, the right amount of money, you know, more or less whatever.

I think it was the right budget in the right place with the right people.

The music is, of course, is for me.

Is it?

Okay.

I have a question about that because we'll we'll get there, but I have a question about that.

Okay.

But the music is where I I really love the music, and it's a movie that that balances the thing that it does new is it leans so heavily on wish fulfillment for half the movie.

Half the movie, we have a character who's trapped in the in the constraints of the real world, and the other half of the movie are the escape of music, the fable that is we're gonna be a band, and we're gonna be so much better than we could possibly ever have been at our age and our experience level.

But we're gonna live in this fantasy universe through our music, and that's gonna be our escape.

And that the sort of duality that's going on in this movie, really appeals to me, And that that's the nature of Sing Street.

So I love it.

Yeah.

I do too.

I think it's a a fantastic film that does I mean, your your what you said, I think, fits where it it kind of takes the best of what Carney was doing with Once and Begin Again, and it gives us the fuller, richer story with, interesting characters.

I mean, you can definitely say there's heavy tropes throughout the film.

But I think because it's so easy to fall in love with the characters and the story, I think it's very easy to kind of move past any of those tropey issues and just enjoy it for what it is, which is a really fantastic story about a a a clearly talented kid who's trying to figure out how to weave inspiration into into his talents.

Right?

Like that's he like, we're watching him figure himself out.

It's like Glenn Hanford or him in once had already figured himself out.

He was already writing songs.

He was already performing stuff.

This is a 15 year old kid who wants to who who decides he wants to do it.

It wasn't even clear at the start that he was actually wanting to start a band.

It's just something that suddenly he's spurred on to do when he sees this beautiful girl across the street.

And so yeah.

So we're watching him figure out how to do all of this.

We're seeing him take things from his brother as inspiration, other artists, things that he says, you know, his feelings about about this new girl that he meets, just like everything from his world.

And, you know, that's what any anyone, I suppose, probably who takes any classes when they're, you know, young, you're gonna be taught, you know, like if you're a writer, write what you know or paint what you know or whatever.

It's like, use that immediacy to start figuring yourself out, to start figuring out how to tap into inspiration and create these things.

And I I love the way that that that is portrayed, and then I love the his his journey over the course of the story paired with Raffina and her journey as well.

Just as a as an aside, Jack Rayner says Raffina best in the movie.

I like the way he says her name the best.

Well, I like the way he says most of the things that come out of his mouth the best.

His accent is just so Amazing.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

And and honestly, he's the best character in the film.

I mean, I would love to see a film.

I I don't know if I'd love to see a film about him because he's clearly a a character who has kind of lost himself and sees his brother as as, you know, inspirational.

But I don't know if he's gonna change anything.

So but he's still just a great character.

Such a fantastic character.

Well, he is.

And and he has a chance at the end.

He writes some lyrics.

And I guess that's the I I don't know.

Maybe this is the he writes some lyrics, I guess, kind of as a gift, and he gives them to his brother as they're about to take off across the the open ocean.

Is that one

of your worst nightmares?

In a dinghy?

Tiny tiny boat.

Are you are you reading it from the tone of my voice?

Hey.

It wasn't a lake.

It wasn't a lake.

It wasn't a lake.

But when he says, this is the part where you should sit down, I was like, okay.

I'm gonna lay down right on the bottom of the boat.

Anyway, I I felt like he I think you you have something there.

Like, there is it's nice to have his little nugget of of reconciliation with his with his past, like, with being able to write some lyrics.

And and the way I hear it, the song I that's Adam Levine.

Right?

I think Adam Levine go on is is the Adam Levine track at the end, and I you know, that song, I'm hearing the the brother's lyrics there.

Like, hands the lyrics.

That's the next song.

He's singing his his brother and and girlfriend off into the into the ocean.

Yeah.

Into the ocean is, I've said intentionally, they're dead.

Yeah.

Everybody's dead.

He's coated in water.

Our last shot.

They're going down.

Yep.

They're going down.

I did not I don't think I had thought about that with that last song until after we finished watching it.

My wife was like, do you think that's the lyrics that his brother wrote for him?

I'm like, oh, I suppose that's what that was.

Yeah.

It was it it plays so nicely.

And I didn't recognize, shockingly, didn't recognize Levine's voice because he's

not doing his Levine ness.

It's so non Levine.

Yeah.

Crazy.

Right?

No.

I think that's that's yeah.

That was he wrote that song.

Think Levine

Co wrote it.

Co wrote it with Carney and Hansard.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anyway, that's that's Raynor, who's amazing in this thing.

And I like Raynor all over the place.

I like Midsommar and the Peripheral and even, you know, transformers.

He was his top four.

I'll celebrate his whole chop four.

I like Rainer enough.

He's one

of those people hey.

He's in Florence on Pete.

Another reason.

I know.

Watch that one.

This is funny.

He was born in Longmont and lived in Boulder, Colorado until he was two, which means that he was there '92 to ninety four ish.

Oh my gosh.

So, like, we were all in Boulder together.

How did we never meet?

I mean, I know

he was two.

How did we not meet two year old Jack Rayner?

I mean, come on.

Wow.

That's great.

Yeah.

Okay.

Meanwhile, back to the principal reason this movie exists.

It's the this is the story of our young Connor who is stuck in a gray world of gray uniforms and gray skies and gray bricks and gray streets, and he's just on a hunt for color.

This whole movie is a search for color that is found through bleached fringe and makeup and Duran Duran.

And interesting clothing choices

that Yeah.

That he starts rocking out to.

He's and this was his first film, is my understanding.

And it's, I mean, it's pretty impressive to, you know, land on this as as kind of your first film.

I mean, he I think he does such a great a great job of this character who's this wide eyed, but very eager and willing to take risks.

Like, I'm always impressed with how how he just jumps at the chance to take risks, you know?

Like when he's when he sees Ruffina across the street and just goes and talks to her.

And when he, you know, has his, comments that he makes to to Barry, he's a brazen kid and I love that about him.

And I think that's, inspiring to see that.

And I think Ferdia pulls it off.

And, you know, I think for a young kid, because let's see, as an actor, he was what, like 17 or so when when they made this film?

Yeah.

Something like that.

Like, still is close to that age, and he's still singing a lot of these songs and carrying the tunes.

And and I think it's an interesting line that Carney had him walk of sounding like a kid with talent, but also sounding like a kid who hadn't had training.

You know?

Well, hadn't had training, but progresses so ably through the musical part of this movie.

Like, the beginning, he really sounds like a kid who doesn't have training,

but by the end, he's a pro.

I mean, he sounds great by the by the the his dream image, the fantasy image of him and the band at the prom or find you.

You know, those those tracks, he is legitimately talented, and it's it's fantastic.

It's talent beyond his years.

And that's what we need.

Right?

Because I think the believability of the movie, even though Ferdie is a musician and he's very, very talented in his own real right, I think we get a sense that I I don't know that we're supposed to believe that these kids could pick up a guitar for the first time and end up becoming, you know, as Rayner says.

Right?

Did the Sex Pistols have any training?

Right?

I don't think we were supposed to believe these guys could become the Sex Pistols over the course of the last forty five minutes of this movie, and yet in their fantasy, in the in the wish fulfillment universe, they do.

They're all very talented in their own right, which is the kind of inner the head conflict that I struggle with, which is, am I supposed to believe that they're so good even though I don't think they could be, even though they really are in real life?

Right?

They're really that talented?

That I find fascinating.

As good as they are as as, you know, musicians to the extent that, you know, some of them played all their instruments and Ferdia can sing, they are preternaturally good songwriters.

That's the that's the piece that is maybe the least believable that feels the most cinematic.

Their songs are way more touching and in tune with the human experience than they should be at that age.

And that's okay too.

Well, that's true.

Yeah.

But that also speaks to the context of the story, I think.

Yes.

Like, we're we're like, he's learning through Brendan who is teaching him how to write better songs.

You know, he's talking to him about how what is happy sad and trying to explore these things with him.

And we and he's going through a lot in his life.

Like, his his, parents are struggling because it's it's Ireland in the mid eighties when everything was just crap.

They're so they're barely working.

They're getting a divorce because his mother has fallen in love with her boss.

So and so the family has little money, so he's had to transfer schools.

Like, life has been really rough.

And so, you know, now he's presumably out of I'm assuming because they transferred him to a public school, I'm assuming they that he had been in a private school of some sort.

You've you know, Raffina kind of says as much when she when she comments about, like, somebody like you over at a school like this.

And so it's been it's been hard.

And so I I don't know.

It is interesting to see a young person like this kind of tapping into that stuff as well as he does.

But also, I think sometimes and I think smartly, just some of the lyrics or the way that the songs are constructed just feel a little less, like, I I think I don't know.

It's a tricky line because I feel like the team putting the songs together did a good job of crafting them as if it was young people crafting them.

Not like it doesn't sound like 30 year olds or however the old these these musicians who wrote the songs are writing them.

You know?

Well, Gary Clark was much older.

It was in in Danny Wilson in the nineties, like, you know, I think that I think he brings that sense of of wisdom.

But you're right.

Like, and when you hear Carney talk about it, right, he's very open with the fact that this this movie allowed him to make to tell a story of the alternate future that he wished he could have created when he was a child, like when he was this age, was I wish I could have gone up to a girl and said, hey.

I'm making a music video, and you're beautiful.

You should be in it, and have her say yes, and then form a band, and have that band be really successful, and have us run off happily with love that is requited in a way that gives you an optimistic view of the world in a a time that was objectively dark.

And he set off to make a a fairy tale through his fascination and love of music, and I I think he nailed it.

Yeah.

That's that's interesting because it does it does read that way.

And it's it's interesting when you look at this film after Once and Begin Again.

And you see, especially after hearing you describe it like that, Once is a story about two musicians who come together at a key point in both of their lives where they had both they were both kind of separated from the person that they had been with.

For her, her husband, for him, his girlfriend.

And they they find kind of a common ground and a place to kind of, like, emotionally connect where it almost feels like they love each other and they're gonna have a relationship.

They have all the musical experience, but then they end up going their own separate ways again.

Begin again, similarly, like Mark Ruffalo's character is having a weird relationship with his wife, has a and and same thing with with Akira's character.

Right?

She she and her boyfriend are kind of breaking up because of his fame and everything like that.

They have that motion, that that emotional connection.

It's like something in the world of creativity when you're doing something like this together, you kind of you grow close to each other, closer to each other because of that connection that you're having at that moment.

And in that story also, they go their separate ways.

Like, there's a moment of of recognition where it could have crossed into a relationship, but she backs off and he ends up back with his wife.

And everything presumably is fine.

This is the only one where they end up together.

And it's interesting that, you know, with that backstory in mind about his kind of a wish fulfillment of his past life that you can see it play out that way.

I mean, he chose to tell a period piece about young people who are now going through a similar journey.

But in this particular case, even though Raffina has that moment where, you know, she she is also trying to figure herself off, and she goes off with this lame Genesis loving boyfriend, boyfriend on and off again boyfriend, but it leads nowhere.

And that when she finally ends up back with, with Connor, it's like and who knows if their relationship will work out in London?

Like, will they be able to figure it out?

Or are they just the puzzle piece?

See, this is that now the skeptic in me, knowing what Carney has done with all of his stories, the skeptic in me says, their their emotional connection right now because of everything they've been doing and creating together and the and the passion and that they've found is driving them to London where they're gonna work on finding their own careers, but maybe they're not gonna end up together.

Maybe they're just going to like, all of that is just driving them to a place where they're going to create their own careers.

So you missed the entire point of wish fulfillment.

I'm just saying, when it comes to Carney, he's already shown me two out of three times.

And so it makes me

But everything else in this movie is about finding the good.

About making the good choices at the right time to lead to positive outcomes.

I think as much as you know, look.

For you, it's they move in different directions once they get to London.

For me, they never survive the boat ride.

But what I think should True.

What I think should dying happy.

Exactly.

What I think we should imagine is we should just stop the movie when they're last smiling together in our heads and just not not canonize a future for them because it really is good.

The way the movie ends is is good and positive and uplifting.

Yeah.

This is a story that and you could say that with all of these stories.

But really, this one, we don't want to see a sequel.

We don't want to have that resolution because it's it's, you know, the unknown is what makes it so gratifying is we can just assume that they are going to be happy.

Especially because, I mean, god, we already had we already had Brendan, like, cheering in the streets for them.

Like, we we can't now have them end up part.

No.

They can they really can only end up dead.

Happy lovers dead in the cold North Northern Sea.

I mean, the ferry almost takes them out.

I know.

I know.

I was that is the I I was probably the most relieved when they actually ran into the ferry because at least they had someone to follow.

Right?

At least they know where they're going.

If they hadn't, I'm like, he was going the wrong way.

Like, he was he was because the ferry crosses their path, and they have to, like, turn to follow it.

So I'm like, so did he even know where he was

They were not going in the right place.

They're aiming for whales.

They're gonna end up, the northern tip of of Yeah.

Scotland or somewhere up there.

Yep.

Wrong way.

But yeah.

Yeah.

Alright.

Well, we'll be right back after this quick break.

And just a reminder, the ads you're about to hear help us keep the show free for you every week.

If you enjoy what we do, listening to our sponsors is one of the best ways to support us along with becoming a member.

We'll return in just a moment.

Okay.

So you, you wanted to talk about the music, and I think this that's an important part of the movie.

Yeah.

The you know, the band creates this fantastic, these tracks that are delightful.

They feel where you can see some of the the tones and the ideas from the source material, like he's listening to Rio from Duran Duran, and that first song that they play has kind of a Duran Duran sort of tone to it.

Right?

You know?

And so I just know you and the eighties don't always mix as far as eighties music.

And so I guess because, like, we've talked about eighties music before, and you're like, oh god.

If only there wasn't that damn eighties music.

And so I guess I'm curious because I feel like they did a pretty good job of capturing of writing music that captures the essence of what feels like eighties tunes.

And so I I'm just wondering because you seem to enjoy the soundtrack.

And I'm like, okay.

So is this is this some weird line that I don't know about you and eighties music?

There may be.

Can you give me some context of where I hate eighties music?

I can't because I can't remember.

I just feel like every time eighties music comes up, I feel like you're like, oh god.

It's so eighties.

There's a lot

of eighties that I don't like, as as a child of the eighties, I feel like we are uniquely able to have opinions on the eighties.

And I'm not crazy about a lot of the culture and style of the eighties, and I you know, it's fine.

I was glad to move on.

But the music the the reference music that they chose for this movie, the jam, the cure, even Hall and Oates, Joe Jackson.

When you're saying the reference music, are are you talking about the other tracks that they play?

Or are you talking about Duran Duran.

Okay.

The cure, of course.

I was a big fan of those bands.

Right?

Like, that was that those were formative bands for me.

So this movie really does tap into a singular place in my music sort of development in that period.

I had these albums.

I see.

So this is the eighties music that you Yeah.

Okay.

So this window.

Alright.

Alright.

Yeah.

What about m?

Because I feel like if there's if there's a song in here that I'm like, Pete, probably, that might be the most eighties song in

here that he doesn't like.

The pop music song.

You're yeah.

You're right.

That's that that is definitely one that I I didn't I didn't have the album.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So then the music you like.

Yeah.

Okay.

Happy sad, man.

Happy sad.

When he threw the Cure album across the room, I was like, yeah.

That's happy sad.

That's funny.

I was so not into any of these groups Really?

At the time.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

Fort Fun wasn't really a bastion of this stuff.

Doran Doran might have been Hall and Oates.

Like, those two on their soundtrack might have been the only two that I liked in the eighties.

Really?

I was I was I was musically inept much of my life.

I know.

That's really interesting.

That's not like a I mean, I I wanna fully litigate your high high school experience at this point.

I I'll refrain from that, but to to a great extent.

High, like elementary school junior high.

Yeah.

That's fair.

But still, I mean, it was it was the late eighties.

I guess now we're in the early nineties.

Yeah.

'85.

Like, I just wasn't listening to anything like this in '85.

You were just listening to what?

Audiobooks?

Were audiobooks even around?

Is that where they came in, like, that giant binder of, like, 50 cassettes?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

I don't know what I was listening to in '85.

Probably v h one and and once in a while, MTV.

Oh my god.

That says so much.

I know.

That you would drop v h one and not even MTV.

No.

MTV, I wasn't listening to as much.

Like, I I I loved, like, Thriller, like some of the the early videos.

I was a big fan of those, but I wasn't I wasn't watching as much of that.

Yeah.

It took me a while.

And now it was probably 85.

God, what grade would I have been?

It probably was a little bit after this that I probably got an 87, 88,

I shifted to MTV.

Okay.

I'm telling you, took a long time.

It took a long time.

It's alright.

Well, I anyway, so the music is for me, and you already said it.

The structure of the music in this movie is what's is is one of the things that's the most interesting about it.

It's the fact that you get you get both the curriculum that Conor and crew are studying, and you get the result of each of the each of their studies.

You get to hear the song that they write that is in the flavor of the source material that they're writing it in.

And I think that's that works really, really well.

The other thing that I think is is captured beautifully in this one, which we also have in Once and Begin Again.

Right?

We have the the experience of songwriters discovering each other and the magic of writing songs together, of collaboration.

And in this movie, it's with what's his name?

The glasses kid.

Aemon?

Aemon.

He time Connor goes to Aemon's house and set holds up his notebook and says, do you wanna write a song with me?

And Eamon says, yep.

It is magic.

And watching them collaborate on writing the song together and figuring out chords and rhythms and beats and and lyrics is fantastic.

It feels so so good.

Absolutely to the level of the piano store scene in Once or the open mic night sequence in Begin Again.

It is a magical experience of watching music take shape between people.

Yeah.

I mean, we don't get anything quite as, like, effectively from start to finish as we do as falling slowly.

Because I mean, that's like, that's our first time really hearing that song as they figure it out together.

This is really just I mean, this is really more banging it out and figuring it out, and we get little we get chunks here and there, and it's nice to actually see by the time we get to the music video is when we're really getting The whole song.

The full versions.

And that's I think what plays well in this film is is that shift in it's about the songs, but a lot of it is about the videos.

Because that's how he draws Rufina into his world.

Right?

She's the model across the street.

He has totally fallen for her.

I mean, it's hard not to fall for Lucy Boynton.

She's just so easy just so easy on the eyes, and she's just so sweet.

And the way she plays the character works so well.

And her growth as a character of this person who yeah.

She wants to become a model, but she's also trying to figure stuff out, you know.

And she's as we kind of get a sense later in the movie, she's not maybe as far along as she led on, led him on to believe, you know.

Right.

Right.

And so in a way, she's kind of riding his coattails across across the sea, you know, to go make it as a model now.

And I I think it's it's nice to see that inspiration, that that belief in him as as she gets to the end and goes over there with him.

Well, the the fact that they are both, Connor and Rufina, are adorable and broken because of the the boxes that they're in.

But in different ways, I think, is is one of the things that makes their relationship really special.

And and that they, you know, like yin and yang, they have to they sort of complete each other's or find each other's brokenness and are able to to buoy it in in a a really lovely way, not a super damaging way.

Certainly not the way, you know, Conor's parents are interacting with each other, which is really terrible.

But but in this in in the way that they that the band is able to buoy their new roadie, you know, the bully from school and turn him around and make him somebody who is thrilled to be able to contribute to something is incredibly special.

What a beautiful turn for that character.

The one that you don't really see coming.

It it is just lovely.

I I think so too.

I think it's just fantastic the way that Barry, his story changes, which it really starts at the moment that he and his dad are passing them making a video.

And his dad is commenting and says something, and Barry makes a snide remark, and his dad backhands him.

And we're like, oh, okay.

Now I see where this guy's coming from.

Because before that, you're just like, this guy's just a dick.

But then you're like, oh, I can now understand more about Barry, and I feel bad for him now every time something else is happening to him because you're realizing he's got troubles.

And you kind of suspect that that story is over in the point where Connor tells him off at the school.

And it's just like, whatever he says, it's just so fantastic the way that he kind of tells off Barry and is just like, you're nothing.

Yeah.

He says hit me.

Do what do what you need to do.

If you need to do this, that's fine.

But just know, you're just more material for my music.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Awesome.

And you think that that's the end of it.

And so it's a real surprise when it circles around.

But that brings me to a question that I have for you because, like, we've seen in other films that we've talked about, on the show, like Lindsay Anderson's If with Malcolm McDowell.

We have a real sense of for this purposes, I'll just I'll say, you know, British school systems and the way that headmasters treat students and the way there's always a teacher who is kind of like the more understanding and inspiring one.

No surprise that she was an art teacher in this one.

We don't get a lot of her.

Yeah.

The bullies, like a lot of this sort of stuff, even even like kind of a a shift in the relationship with the bully.

Like, there's a lot of a lot of tropes that he's playing into here.

And I mean, you can say certainly any film about schools, you can find a lot of these tropes too.

But, like, how do you feel about all the tropes?

Is it too much?

I mean, our our headmaster, I think, is probably the most of the tropes.

Brother Baxter, who is like I mean, he's just he's abusive.

Like, he punches that student at the end who Punches him right in the face.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Unbelievable.

He forcibly drags Conor to the bathroom and scrubs his face in the sink to get the makeup off.

Like, he's he's a terrible terrible leader of this place.

Is he too tropey?

Like, where do you stand on, like, that level of these characters?

I don't know.

I think that I I think, you know, we one of the other pieces of, you know, when we discuss tropes is that tropes exist for a reason, and tropes are only problematic when they're handled ham handedly.

In this case, the music parts of the movie are so fabulous that it feels in balance to have Connor's journey to this nonsecular school and have such a brutal experience with the people there be as awful as as the music is good.

And I find that emotionally tonally appropriate.

I I did not find any of the any of the stuff that that we would perceive as sort of stereotypical.

I didn't find any of it offensive to me.

I didn't find it any of it narratively offensive.

I didn't find any of it ham handed.

I I found it in solid balance to the journey that Conor's going through because, you know, it exists to amplify his emotional state.

Right?

It's it's so bad because that's how he feels about it.

Now just like the music videos happened probably not the way they did in his head, maybe his experience with father Baxter or whatever was not as bad as it was in his head either.

Right?

I I think it's fair to say that maybe his experience at school was a little bit more smooth, but it doesn't matter because that was what he was feeling at the time.

Right?

It doesn't matter what the reality was because he was feeling like it was hell every time he walked into school.

Yeah.

I mean, I I can definitely say that.

I don't think we're seeing anything that's fanciful or in his head except that one video.

I think that only one time do we step into his imagination as to what the video is becoming.

I think the rest of the videos are pretty as is.

It's just when he's doing the prom one where brother Baxter comes in and starts doing backflips and Yeah.

Dancing and does the little blessing to him, you know?

But I I just mean, like, the the the the nature of this of that part of the movie as a fable.

Right?

That that it's hard what we were talking about earlier, how how much do we believe that these 15 year old kids who had never picked up instruments now are able to to become a pop band?

Well, I don't think we have to believe that necessarily.

Let's just go along for the ride.

This is, in many respects, a big fish story, so it's fine.

Yeah.

It will and, I mean, I think I mean, I'm just you know, I'm playing devil's advocate because I really don't have many problems with the way that the tropes work in this film.

I mean, they're very noticeable.

But I I I think you're right.

I think nothing is egregious or bothersome or done in a way where it it takes you out of the story because it all fits the context of of this journey that Connor is on.

And so I think because of that, I am I find myself, like, in all the scenes of brother Baxter, I find them playing fine, playing acceptably.

They work in context of this story that we're getting.

I mean, as you said, they're tropes for a reason.

Like, this there sadly, there are headmasters and principals like this who are awful with their students.

Who make the decision that it's better for a student in a a cold Irish I don't know.

Is it winter?

I it just he feels cold.

Always cold.

It's probably March.

But it's better for a student to learn a lesson by going barefoot than by wearing shoes that aren't black.

Right?

Ridiculous.

Yeah.

It's it's awful.

And so I so it all plays fine to me.

And I guess that's I think that's, this is a good lesson.

Like, the way that this film is constructed is a good lesson on taking tropes and integrating them well into your story so that it doesn't end up feeling like, ugh, so cliche, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's I I I think it's probably harder to do than you think.

Truly.

Truly.

And you're right.

I mean, I I none of this feels cliched to me.

It feels like we're taking unique interesting characters and putting them through an experience that is relatable to us as human beings.

Yeah.

I think one of the funniest scenes that perhaps is is most relatable is when he asks all the Irish girls to actually do some dancing

at the start

of that scene.

And just snap your fingers, like it's the fifties.

That is some of the funniest, like, awful dancing that I've ever seen.

It was incredible.

It was incredible.

I didn't I mean, I you know, we we have a lot of white people don't have rhythm speaking of tropes.

I did not know that it gets worse the further north you go.

Like like, there is a really wide gradient of white people don't have rhythm that we that I mean, depths we have yet to plumb.

Oh, it is pretty awful.

It was hilariously so.

So, yeah, lots of fun.

Alright.

Well, we'll be right back.

But first, our credits.

The next reel is production of True Story FM Engineering by Andy Nelson, music by Demetriks, Wonderland, Ian Locke, Oriole Novella, and Eli Catlin.

Andy usually finds all the stats for the awards and numbers at d-numbers.com, boxofficemojo.com, imdb.com, and wikipedia.org.

Find the show at truestory.fm.

And if your podcast app allows ratings and reviews, please consider doing that for our show.

So this is the end of this, this trilogy that you had, kind of dubbed as the Streetwise trilogy.

I think that we've determined Flora and Son is a similar type of musical.

Right?

Like, this is kind of Carney's thing.

Right?

It's about I mean, I'm assuming she's a mother who sings music with her son or something.

Is that what the movie's about?

I don't know, man.

How would we be able to even tell?

We haven't watched it.

How would we know?

Yeah.

I just I I feel like it's kind of, you know, along the same thing.

And then he has a new he's filming a new Weaver right now, Power Ballad, an upcoming musical comedy film with Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas, Jack Rayner, Havana Rose, Liu, and and Sophie Vavasur.

Flora and Son, though.

A single mother is is at war with her son trying to find a hobby for him.

One day, she rescues a guitar from a dumpster.

And with the help of an LA based online guitar teacher, discovers that one person's trash is another person's treasure, basically.

Okay.

So, I mean, is Carney really just good at this, and so he just needs to stick with it?

Or do you wanna see something else from Carney?

Well, I

mean Like, why hasn't he been offered the next Marvel film?

Right.

Dude, that's not always they scrape.

Who who's who's the latest hot indie filmmaker?

Let's bring Vanmal.

We all we also haven't seen him do horror.

We haven't seen him do I mean, of course, this environment immediately, I'm thinking of, you know, twenty eight days later.

Like, why why don't we have zombies in any of these movies?

Because it feels like they should be in the same universe.

What he could have done with the twenty eight years later community all singing, like, that could have been like some beautiful carny stuff there.

Like, forget the zombies.

Just tell us the story on the island.

Yeah.

We need more music around the bone temple.

I just think that's a mess.

I don't know.

I feel like, you know, here's a guy who's figured out where his best stories live.

At the same time, he spent an awful lot of time developing modern love, the TV show.

I haven't watched any of it, but my understanding is it's not a musical experience at all.

I think he's he also has a real knack for relationship movies.

And one of the languages that he speaks is through music because that's his history and and his experience.

But also, he just he does have an eye for how relationships exist.

Yeah.

I I will say that's very true.

I think that that's an element that you definitely see with the work that he does is is that ability to find a connection between people.

Yeah.

He really does.

This this did make me want to crank up Modern Love and just get sort of an experience.

It's got a hell of a rotating cast in here.

I think it's mostly anthology.

Yeah.

And it's just two seasons, so it's not too long.

It's not too long.

And it's like Black Mirror for, you know, people who are looking for relationship stories.

So, yeah, I I mean, I just I think he's got a real eye and ear for how how human connection works, and that is beautifully expressed through music, but I don't think at the exclusion of anything else.

Yeah.

I I I am curious though, because I mean, with with power ballad filming now, that also is a musical story.

I am curious.

I mean, it's great to hear, like, about Modern Love and what he was doing with that show.

I am curious if he's gonna be, you know, doing something else that is not musical based or if that's I mean, honestly, he's good at it.

So it's not like I'm asking for him to stop.

I'm just curious, like, what else can he do?

You know?

Yeah.

And does he want to do anything else?

Well, that's a question.

You know?

Are these the movies that he's able to get made because he has such a positive track record with them?

Yeah.

And as long as it doesn't get to a point where it feels like he's become pigeonholed in it, and that's the only thing that he gets money for, you know, because and I guess we're not at that point where their stories are feeling, stale yet.

So I guess we'll see how Florence Sun plays, and we'll see how powerball it plays when it comes out.

But

I I think that's the that's the real trick.

So far in this sort of approach to these movies as a bit of a trilogy, spiritual trilogy, every one of them brings something original to to the story.

He's not telling the same story over and over again insofar as he's telling the same story over and over again.

I I still get enough out of it that's unique that I enjoy the experience.

I enjoy the ride very, very much.

Do you think that he handles the period elements fine?

I mean, he's Irish, so obviously, he was around in eighties Dublin, so probably had a sense as to kind of, like, the issues in the country and everything and kind of the just the general tone.

But it's the only period piece.

I mean, do do you wanna see him do more stuff with period?

I think Flora and the Sun is is Contemporary.

Contemporary.

I I don't know about power ballad.

It's just it doesn't say.

So who knows about that one?

Depicts a conflict between a rock star and a wedding singer.

And the song that comes between them.

It doesn't sound like something that necessarily needs to take place in a period, so I'm assuming it's present day.

But that is a great it is a good question, though, Andy.

What is the role of the eighties in this movie apart from the fact that it's when John Carney was, you know, growing up?

Well, I think that's a big thing.

Like, I feel like, in a in a way, I I think it boils down to what you said.

Like, this is childhood wish fulfillment.

Like, this is a path I wish I could have taken.

And maybe because of that, it also ends up being the most personal in some ways.

I mean, I know there was a lot of him in Once.

I don't think there's as much of him in Begin Again.

But, I think that this film feels I don't know.

I can I can tap into perhaps a a stronger sense of story because it feels like he was most connected to this?

Like, he he seems to really have tapped into wanting to be these characters.

Yeah.

I think so too.

You know, I don't wanna overthink the question of the eighties as a as an important element, specifically the eighties.

I think the, I I think it's it's important only insofar as that was his reality at the time, and he's painting a picture of that reality.

The the music itself, I think, has a a fascinating contribution to musical lore coming out of the seventies into the eighties, the, you know, the cure, the clash, the the sort of straddling punk electronic goth, trying to figure out our place in the world music, and how do we take ownership of a world that is out of control music, and how do we figure out how to have relationships with people in in an era that is oversexualized.

And we don't know how to be oversexualized, but we think the world's asking us to do that.

And, you know, how do we reconcile all these complex things as young people?

I I think that's an that's an important era of of music, and it has influence today.

But, you know, most of this most of the import of the eighties is because John Carney was there, and it feels like home.

Yeah.

So I don't know.

I I guess to that point, it makes me feel like it might be the only period piece we end up seeing from him.

You know?

And that would be fine.

Yeah.

That would be fine.

It would be interesting to see him though, like tackle something.

I mean, not that I'm asking the world to create any more music biopics.

I feel like we've kind of hit our limit of those.

But it would be interesting to see him tackle something like an Amadeus sort of thing.

I was just gonna say that.

Yeah.

Yes.

John Carney's Beethoven.

Yeah.

Like, something like that could be interesting to see him jump into that type of a relationship story, but take it back a few 100 years.

Right.

Right.

You know, maybe he could do that for Shonda Rhine's production company, and we could just all worlds collide.

Yes.

We could go that route.

Ay yai yai.

Well, it it's a fantastic movie.

I really love

it.

It's a fantastic movie.

It really really is.

You have any thoughts on how the how the camera works on this thing?

In a way where it's unobtrusive, like, I it's not really nothing stood out as noticeable.

It just worked.

You know?

I didn't I didn't it didn't catch my eye.

If anything caught my eye, just say I thought they did a good job of capturing, the costumes as far as period clothing of the era, but also as they started figuring out their identities as the band.

Like, I I love the bit when they show up for the first video, and then when Raffina shows up, and she's just like, you know, she recognized you're trying.

You've got some work to do.

Let me help you figure something out.

Like, that was fun.

Yeah.

To the to the point where the the final performance is really well appointed.

They look great.

They're eighties flamboyant.

They really pull it together.

I think Jaron Orbach is the is the DP, and I I do think, you know, these movies one of the things that we noticed from once and begin again is that, you know, the camera really has to to be subservient to the music in in a lot of ways.

Right?

We can't we can't have the visuals compete too hard with the music, and I think this movie really takes that to the next level.

It's it's not noticeable because the the music is so stage forward.

Right?

Especially when the camera changes from we're capturing a movie to we're capturing a music video, and I love that.

I love when the camera enters the frame, and we start seeing the redhead kid actually being the cameraman Oh, yeah.

And the producer.

And I could do lots of things.

Yeah.

Of those those elements, I think, integrate together really, really well.

So it is not drenched in neon nostalgia, which that we have talked about, where eighties movies tend to oversaturate pinks and blues.

Not eighties movies.

Present day movies taking place in the eighties, you mean.

Yeah.

Period movies.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

This movie does not do that.

It makes the choice to stay sort of grounded and earthy.

And, yeah, they're wearing flamboyant colors and pastels and stuff that is in the eighties pop color kind of hue chart.

But it felt like stuff they pulled out of their mom's closet or something.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

It's just the way it was worn, the way it was fashioned.

I think it the palette was sort of part of the narrative and not part of just the showpiece of, look, we're in the eighties.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's fantastic.

I I love the story.

I love I love their relationships, the family relationships, dynamic with.

It's fun seeing Aiden Gillen in there as the dad and Maria Doyle Kennedy as the mom.

So good.

The way

that the way that his brother, Brendan, has his relationship with the parents.

Like, it's just such a strange relationship.

Like, he's always calling them by their first name and doesn't seem to like them much, but the parents kind of just acknowledge that's the way things are.

Just kind of go along.

Like, I don't know.

It's great dynamics.

I just love all of that.

Yeah.

Me too.

Me too.

Fantastic movie.

I I absolutely love it.

So I'm glad that you added it to the list, and we finally got a chance to talk about it.

Me too.

It was great excuse to have this have this box checked.

And and I feel like in some respects, in order to talk about this movie, we had to talk about Once and Begin Again.

But but they're not bad movies, but they're boxes that needed to be checked to get here.

Yeah.

Well, I I like them both.

Yeah.

I think they're great movies.

I think it's a great a great set of films that Carney made with these three movies.

So For sure.

I and I will just say, just as a last note, I don't think I ever caught that the school itself was called Singh Street.

Singh Street.

Like Yeah.

I was like, I noticed that this time, and I'm like, the school's name is Singh Street?

And my wife was just like, yeah.

You've never noticed that?

I'm like, I don't think I ever have.

And so I'm like, okay.

So that's now the title makes that much more sense that it's because it's S Y N G E Street.

Yeah.

Well, maybe that's why you didn't notice because it looks like Singe Street.

It does look like Singe Street.

Yeah.

There was a nice little note in the credits that talk about the school, like, thanks for letting us use you.

We know you're a great place.

It's very multicultural.

It's a really good school.

Like, it was a nice note talking about how times have changed.

Sequels and remakes.

Andy, let's go to the big stage.

That's right.

Like once before, this was adapted for stage as a musical, also coincidentally called Sing Street.

It premiered December 2019 after lots of workshops.

It was set to premiere 2020, and then, of course, COVID COVID happened.

The cast still recorded an album, and then the show premiered in the 2022 finally with plans to move to Broadway.

Never did.

And then 2024, Barbara Broccoli of James Bond fame, she announced that they were it was gonna play in London in summer twenty twenty five.

I don't think that ever happened.

So I think that this is something that people have been trying to actually get out there and off the ground, but it's never quite it's played a few times, but it's never gotten out there.

So I don't know if that speaks to its quality or timing or what.

I don't know, man.

Is that is it a story you'd wanna see on on stage?

I don't know.

I I I don't have any issue with, like, you know, I I think it'd play fine on stage.

I guess I'd have to see it, see if I like it or not, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I my last experience with this kind of a thing, band movie turned stage play, is Purple Rain, which didn't go well.

Well, you also never saw it once.

You only heard the music for that one.

Right?

Right.

Right.

Have you heard this have you heard the the music for the this Broadway show?

Okay.

Or

this I've never put it on.

I like the soundtrack to the movie so much.

Yeah.

I like Connor.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It makes me wonder.

How to do it award season?

Did well for itself.

16 wins with 45 other nominations.

At the Golden Globes, it was nominated for best musical or comedy, but lost to La La Land.

At the Irish Film and Television Awards, it was nominated for best film but lost to Room, a movie I don't think I realized was Irish.

And I guess that just speaks to, you know, the nature of these movies.

Like they're so so often, they base it on where it was, where the money comes from.

You know?

I don't think of Room as an Irish film, but it is.

I couldn't I don't

think I could tell you where it takes place, Room.

Where does it take place?

I think it's somewhere in The US.

The best director, here's another one, Lenny Abrahamson, won beating out Carney for this film, also for Room.

Yeah.

Jack Rayner was nominated for best actor in supporting role, and won.

Best sound, Lost to Room.

Best costume design in film or TV drama, Lost to Vikings.

Best makeup and hair in film or TV drama, lost to Dominion Creek.

And best original music, it was nominated but also lost to Room.

And then over at the Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards, it was nominated for best Irish film but lost to a date with Mad Mary.

Oh my goodness.

You don't ever want to go on a date with Mad Mary.

I will say Room primarily filmed on location in Toronto and Missus uga Mississauga, Mississauga, Canada.

Let's try saying that a few more times.

Nope.

I won't do it.

It was a co production between The US, Canada, Ireland, and was shot mostly in Canada.

Yeah.

And then Frank is an Irish film?

Because that was wasn't that Lenny's next film?

Oh, that's a good point.

I think Frank was.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So there you go.

In County Wicklow, Ireland.

Gotcha.

Alright.

Okay.

So that means we have to talk about the box office then.

Oh, yes.

Please tell me it did okay.

Well, for the third in this unofficial trilogy, Carney had a budget of 4,000,000 or 5,300,000.0 in today's dollars.

Singh Street premiered at Sundance in 2016, then opened in Ireland 03/17/2016, and Limited in The US on April 15, opposite the Jungle barbershop the next cut, criminal, and fan.

It would eventually expand to 525 screens, but would never get higher than eleventh place.

Still, it did earn its money back, bringing in 3,200,000.0 domestically and 10,400,000.0 internationally for a total gross of just under 18,000,000 in today's dollars.

That lands the film with an adjusted profit per finished minute of a 119,000, meaning it earned the least back in this whole trilogy.

Though that really has nothing to do with the film's quality.

Yeah.

It's still at at $4,000,000, that's still pennies, but more than he had for anything else.

Right?

Did he get what did he have for I've already forgotten.

What did he have for Begin Again?

Begin Again was 8,000,000, I believe.

Yeah.

So I I think that it boils down to the fact that Once did really well because he spent barely any money making that movie and it made a lot back.

Begin Again, he had a huge, like, comparatively huge budget, twice this budget, and it did fine.

You know?

It was it had big stars in it and everything.

This is a no star type of movie that's really just relying on its story and, the music and everything to draw people in.

And that's always harder to get people in.

And I don't know.

In today's modern theater world that we're living in, where movie theaters are kind of dying because of streaming and kind of post COVID, it does make me wonder if he's gonna be shifting more to TV work after that next movie of his comes out.

I guess we'll see.

You know what's interesting about this?

I can you imagine, just as a thought experiment, eight part limited series that would have been Sync Street.

Right?

Not seeing it as a film.

I for for my money, there is there is more interesting story here on the development of these kids over time and being able to have them work up to the big concert at the end.

And I think it I think it would be an interesting story to have a music a John Carney music movie told as a limited series.

You just want another Glee beat.

Shut up, Andy.

Oh, man.

Alright.

Enough out of you.

Well, it's a it's a it's a great movie, and your point is interesting, but I am curious.

Yeah.

It'll be interesting to see where Carney goes as the industry has changed.

I'm just coming up with ideas for properties you will never see because, you know, movies.

That's true.

I know.

Well, that's it for today's conversation.

Next week, we are returning to our Benny Davis series to discuss her 1940 film directed by William Wyler, The Letter.

So let's move on to the ratings.

Letterbox.com/thenextreel.

That's where you can find our HQ page where we have all of the ratings and reviews for the movies that we have talked about on the show.

Andy, what are you gonna do for Sing Street?

This is an easy one.

I just I've always loved this since I first saw it.

Just a fantastic movie.

It's an easy five star in heart for me.

You know okay.

Me too.

Yeah.

I was gonna say nice try.

Nice try.

Right?

I know.

I know.

But what about the quibbles?

What about all my quibbles, Andy?

Yeah.

It's five star I

don't think you even talked about a single quibble in this film.

I have no quibbles.

I have no quibbles.

You have no quibbles.

I brought up all the quibbles.

You have the quibbles.

I know.

Surprised yours isn't 4.897 stars.

That's right.

It's close.

It was almost there.

Well, that averages out to five stars in a heart, which you can find on our account at Letterboxd at the next reel.

You can find me there at Soda Creek Film, and you can find Pete there at Pete Wright.

So what do you think about Sing Street?

We would love to hear your thoughts.

Hop into the ShowTalk channel over to our Discord community where we will be talking about the movie this week.

When the movie ends, our conversation begins.

Letterbox giveth, Andrew.

As letterboxed always doeth.

Oh my goodness.

I need a shower.

I've been hanging out in the very bottom of the barrel.

Yeah.

Yeah.

How does it feel down there?

It's it's slimy.

Yeah.

There's a lot of hate.

Well, go for it.

What do you have?

I I guess there's I hate this movie so much.

I would give the zero if I could.

Oh, and why the f do you begin that with a motorhead effing song?

Don't let Netflix make you a victim and trick you into watching this movie.

I don't I mean, there's not one that I feel like I wanna talk.

It's just there's a lot of people who hate this movie, and and the ones that are specific say things like this.

Joe John one says, watch this earlier this week.

Don't bother.

Netflix tricked me into watching it knowing my affinity for Irish flicks and such.

Yeah.

This movie is kind of pissed me off multiple times.

Mad corny, mad cheesy.

I couldn't even finish watching it.

So I think that gets back to your point on around tropes, and and I think, you know, maybe I'm am I letting the movie off too easily around the tropes that people are clearly on fire about?

Few people, let's just say, in the in the scope of the people who've watched this movie.

These are the minority voices.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I I the the average rating of this film is four stars.

So it's pretty high.

But I think your point makes sense.

A lot of people really just don't like the tropes.

They find it way too tropey, and I think there's a lot of that here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's it's depressing.

I don't wanna hang out down there anymore.

Give me something better.

Well, first, I'm gonna do another half star only because it's really funny because this person, their moniker is hater of movie titles, and their complaint is the street itself can't sing.

And if you go to their reviews, everybody wants some.

But I don't want some.

I wanna be healthy.

Million dollar arm.

There was no arm that you could buy for a million dollars.

Everything everywhere all at once.

Sorry, filmmakers, but it's simply not possible to place everything everywhere all at once.

The suicide squad.

They still didn't kill themselves.

Every one of these movies, half star.

So Yeah.

This is another person who has taken to being a smarmy little bastard Peter Fox.

But the one I wanna go with is actually a four star, by Sree.

Irish Seth Rogen is my favorite Seth Rogen, and I couldn't agree more.

That's so true.

Oh my god.

Oh, that was beautiful.

Thanks, Letterboxd.