AVClub: John Carney’s peppy flashback musical Sing Street is to his earlier Once what a glossy major-label debut is to a scrappier first album: Both have their pleasures, but the former can’t help but look a little artificial when compared to the latter. To be fair, Carney already made his leap to the majors with Begin Again, a cloying NYC music drama that had the gall to sell drippy, generic Starbucks rock as some sort of “authentic” answer to the phoniness of Top 40. Sing Street, a much more winning crowd-pleaser, takes Carney back to Ireland, back to handheld camerawork, and back to his own past as a moony, pop-loving youth. If it doesn’t quite return him to the aching intimacy of Once, it at least finds a better way for him to begin again. In Sing Street, Carney harbors no delusions about the integrity or ambitions of his hero. The kid just wants to get girls.
Boy meets girl. Girl unimpressed. Boy starts band.
'Sing Street' feels distinctly like the work of a user, someone who treats the people around him either as things to be viewed and attained, or stepping stones -- but at least it's got a beat you can dance to.
Via Goombastomp
TRR: If the notion of musically-inclined high schoolers conjures up images of kids dancing and singing their way from scene to scene, perish the thought, because Sing Street is far removed from the likes of High School Musical and Glee. Touching, well-acted, and like opening a time capsule full of '80s pop culture goodness, it will leave you humming its feel-good melodies for days.
