Sing Street – Never Do Anything Halfway, Do it Right!
This touching film follows a boy growing up in Dublin during the 1980s who escapes his strained family life by starting a band to impress the mysterious girl he likes. It touches on so many different themes while delivering a strong story about a boy and his music. KIDS FIRST! Film Critic Giselle T. comments, “This movie left me speechless. Its different components are what made the movie outstanding. It shows the life of the poor as well as how emotional the life of a teenager can be.” See her full review below.
Sing Street
By Giselle T., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, Age 16
This movie left me speechless. Its different components are what made the movie outstanding. It shows the life of the poor as well as how emotional the life of a teenager can be. The different personalities coming together and bonding show how distinctive all these young adults can be, while sharing such a powerful art.
Sing Street is about a teenage boy living in a rural neighborhood and how he copes with his hurdles. Throughout his difficult moments he meets a girl that brings out a whole new side of him. One of the kids in the band known as Eamon (Mark McKenna) involved his pet rabbits in all the meetings with the band. He ha
s this weird obsession with them and has about ten of them. It is hilarious how, everywhere he goes, he holds a bunny.
The location plays a huge part in this movie. It takes place in Ireland, in a poor community where everyone just looks forward to leaving for the city or sailing to London to find hope. The high school they go to is religious and only for males. It’s also very liberal in the sense kids smoke everywhere and do whatever they want at lunch, but it is very strict about uniform policies and respect. For instance, at one moment the main actor Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, referred to as Cosmo in the film, wears make up to school to make an image for himself with his band. The priest who is also the principal of the school, forces Cosmo physically to remove it.
Most importantly, I found this movie to be very inspirational. One of its messages is “never do anything halfway, just do it right.” As mentioned earlier, Cosmo meets a girl, Raphina, who motivates him to do something for her when, in fact, he benefits from it the most. She helps him manage his problems. One of the things she says that will always stick in my mind is to not only be sad, but make your sadness happy. Although you are in a bad place, make the best out of it. Write a song or express it in some way. I recommend this film for ages 14 to 18 and rate it 5 out of 5 stars. Viewer discretion is advised due to explicit language and violence.
