Movie review: ‘Sing Street’

That’s the philosophy of such cinematic imports as Once and The Sapphires, and it’s at the center of Sing Street, a good-natured, old-fashioned, crowd-pleasing Irish pop musical that doesn’t go anywhere unexpected but has a great time getting there.

Set in mid-’80s Dublin, it focuses on 15-year-old Cosmo (an impressive Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), who has major problems at home. His warring parents are on the verge of separation while the country’s economic woes — which have sent many to seek work in England — mean their incomes have been cut.

They can no longer afford the expensive Jesuit school for Cosmo and he’s forced to go to a lesser Catholic school, called Synge Street, where he’s bullied by a fellow student and a priest.

His salvation comes in the form of Raphina (Lucy Boynton), a sophisticated 16-year-old who resides near campus. In order to impress her, Cosmo says he’s in a band and they need her to be in a video. Her willingness means that he has to make good on his word and actually put a group together.

Since it’s the height of the “new romantic” era, Cosmo and his friends — under the tutelage of his older, more musically aware brother — mold themselves into the styles of Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and the Cure, often with amusing results. There’s even a touch of Hall & Oates in there, for good measure.

But Sing Street isn’t just about cheap, nostalgic laughs. Writer/director John Carney, who directed Once as well as the equally musical Begin Again, has a way of artfully tugging at heartstrings without falling prey to mawkishness.

While Sing Street lacks Once’s emotional depth and resonance, Carney’s portrait of Dublin family life is tinged with a light-hearted realism, and no wonder: He attended Dublin’s real-life Synge Street Christian Brothers school in the ’80s and was quoted in USA Today as saying that music for him “was definitely a survival thing.”

Gary Clark from the ’80s group Danny Wilson (who had the hit Mary’s Prayer and would go on to compose or produce songs for Natalie Imbruglia, Liz Phair and Nick Carter, among others) helped write the original tunes the fictional band plays in the film. They ring vibrantly with the authenticity of someone who was there.

Walsh-Peelo, making his film debut, conveys the songs with passion — he actually does his own vocals — and it’s a star-making role.

In more ways than one, Sing Street hits all the right notes.

Exclusive: Angelika Dallas; Angelika Plano; opens April 29 at Cinemark Ridgmar 13, Fort Worth

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 7:20 AM with the headline "Movie review: ‘Sing Street’."