Have you ever imagined to form a rock band with your friends and classmates and play around the world? That was every kid‘s dream in the 2000s and early 80s and 90s. This film remind us that every artist needs to chase what they want in life and Sing Street is a film that remind us how precious your dreams are.

This film came out in 2016 and was directed and written by John Carney, known to direct dramas with musical elements and it came out with limited screens around the world, but over the years, it has won the heart of millions and it‘s almost a perfect film, but the message that conveys about coming of age is so POWERFUL.
Set in 1980 in Dublin, Ireland, the story follows Connor, a 14 year old boy who is moved from a prestigious private school to a public one, because the economy in Ireland in the 80s was in decline and his parents faced some financial troubles. He gets into a public catholic school, where apparently there‘s no rules and strict teachers that are racist. But, one day, he stumbles across a girl in front of the school, and invites her to be in his new music video and eventually needs to form a band, so he can make an impression.
SING STREET it‘s a special film. Made with little money and shot on location, Carney uses the power of storytelling to embrace the personality and he forms a band of complete misfits, dreams and one of them that takes it seriously. They are chasing something, they believe in something, and they understand what they have is more important than anything.

Every single actor that appears on screen is flawless, and some of them are non-actors hired for this movie, but everyone is perfectly cast in their roles. Ferdia Walsh-Peelo is an actor who was trained as a singer in real life and he got the part because Carney saw his singing audition. Across the movie, we saw how the composer and singer gets together to write songs and compose them and there‘s an iconic scene where Up, the song is played and they made that the quality of the songs sounds more like they made it, instead of high studio quality.
There‘s a ton of movies about this kind of coming of age stories, but this film doesn‘t try to look cool, because we have a setlist of characters that are awkward, weird and nerds and they‘re authentic and raw, they don‘t try to look cool. The director used the other perspective, what if we show how they are.
This film also introduces Connor‘s brother, a misunderstood character that lives in the home as lonely weed consumer and that drop out of school, but he was the one who inspired Connor to chase his dreams, to tell him that sometimes mistakes happened, but I viewed this film about how a big brother‘s story, how sometimes we can become stuck in making our dreams come true, while the other couldn‘t and this film resonate with me because I have been in that position and it melts my heart.

By the ending, you realize that sometimes characters needs to take some risks. The world is scary, but they are risking their own lives in order to chase what they want. They start as kid dreaming of the what if, and by the end, they are serious about the adventure.
This movie always make me cry, because I identify with the main characters and how the bonds evolves into a beautiful friendship. This reminds me when I was back in Mexico, after finishing school, I wanted to studied film or doing something related, but I told my parents that I wanted to make and work on it, and decided to move and leave my previous life behind in order to pursue my dreams, and came alone to Canada and suffered through every aspect and I think this film talks a lot about that and this is why it hits me in the feels everytime that I watch.
But as the film says: “Risk it, chase it, feel it“, you will never know.

You can watch Sing Street on Prime Video.
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