By Christine Westwood
Since appearing on the festival circuit in Cannes, Sundance, and now The Sydney Film Festival, John Carney’s Sing Street has become an audience favourite, and in spite of its low budget and largely unknown cast, has also been picked up by distributors around the world. Carney’s previous films include Once (which won the Oscar for Best Song in 2007) and 2013’s Begin Again with Keira Knightley, both of which, like Sing Street, are based around musicians.
Sing Street is set in 1980s Dublin, and focuses on high school boy, Connor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), whose cash-strapped father (convincingly played by Aiden Gillen, best known as “Little Finger” in Game Of Thrones) takes him out of paid private school and puts him in the rough, tough school in Syng Street, Dublin. Struggling with his parents’ breakup, school bullying, and inspired by his muse – would-be model, Raphina (Lucy Boynton) – Connor forms a band. His other inspiration is his disillusioned drop-out older brother, Brendan (Jack Reynor). What follows is a funny, fast paced, and uplifting tale as we watch this most unlikely bunch of kids pull together a ragbag ensemble, complete with homemade music videos, an array of 1980’s outfits, and original songs. The band’s creative journey, with Connor and Eamon (Mark McKenna) as the songwriting duo at the heart of it, is a wonderful reminder that creativity is driven by vision and heart…the technical skills come later.
It’s a story that echoes that of Irish director, John Carney, and Sing Street has also been a hit with U2 frontman, Bono, who gave advice to John Carney on aspects of the film. “I remember the 1980s with somewhat of a blush,” Bono writes on U2’s website. “No man’s hair should be bigger than his girlfriend’s. But that was the time. Dublin in Technicolor. In reality, it was monochrome and in the grip of a recession. But on video tape, you could be transported. You could wear what you liked, and the more outrageous the better. Anything to wind up the jackbooted skinheads on Dublin’s north side. Make-up on a boy drove rockers wild, and the teachers wilder. Thank God for Bowie, who made all the black eyes okay. And allowed people to find out who they were. My brother gave me the gift of music through my first guitar. We formed a band. In truth, at the same stage, U2 were not as good as the kids in Sing Street. In truth, most films that you’ll see this year won’t touch Sing Street.”
The actors are accomplished musicians in real life, and Carney told the audience at the film’s Sundance screening about pacing their musical development as a key to the filmic structure and story. “You don’t want to have them get too good too quickly, or that’s Hollywood, but if they’re shit for too long, you’re bored,” Carney said. “I wanted to make a film not just about an ordinary school band but a band that are gonna be good, so you have to sow those seeds.”
Carney also spoke about another theme in the film: the lack of opportunity in Ireland for artistic success. “We didn’t have a 1960s rebellion in Ireland. That happened in the 1980s when we rebelled against what was holding us back, and we looked to London and New York and Europe. There was a sense of going to England to find out who you are, not just to look for jobs like in the 1950s. There was the idea that you won’t find out who you are if you stay in Ireland, and that was an interesting cultural thing in the 1980s.”
The young actors acquit themselves well, with McKenna boasting an understated, believable screen presence that is perfect for the role of Connor’s best friend. Boynton is a beautiful 1980s New Romantic muse while bringing a brave honesty and strength to the character of Raphina, a foster kid and aspiring model – Connor’s attraction to her is wholly believable. The casting of Ferdia Peelo-Walsh in the film’s central role is a masterstroke by Carney. The musician/actor has a magnetism that carries us through the movie, and the young performer is utterly convincing in his metamorphosis as he takes on a kaleidoscope of music and dress styles to arrive at his own voice and sound.
In Sydney to promote Sing Street at The Sydney Film Festival, Ferdia Peelo-Walsh and Mark McKenna spoke to FilmInk about having their lives changed by the casting and filming experience. “John said that he didn’t want actors,” says Peelo-Walsh. “He didn’t want kids trained in theatre, though he wanted musicians. He’d say, ‘Don’t act, just say the lines.’ It was a long process. He didn’t cast some of the guys in the band until maybe a week before the shoot. He worked off me to make sure that everything was right in the relationships.” McKenna, who says that he was initially cast for a deadpan quality that he brought to the camera, adds, “John said, ‘This is a film about teenagers, and you’re all teenagers, so I don’t need to tell you what to do. You know what to do.’”
“John loves putting you in awkward situations,” says Peelo-Walsh. “He’d get us together to put on silly costumes. It’s a great way to get to know people because you’re all really exposed. It was different with the people who play my family, the serious actors. They didn’t come in and audition; John had relationships with them already. For me to get the family sense of them, we hung out on set which is great, because once you’ve been in those awkward, funny situations on a set with someone, you feel like you know each other really well. When I met Jack [Reynor], he was super cool wearing shades and stuff, but I really got to know him when he put on the wig and grew his beard out and put on the smelly jumpers.”
It wasn’t, however, all fun and games…but there was a huge pay-off. “There was the odd tough day on set,” says Peelo-Walsh. “The occasional scene would drive me nuts, because I’d just be exhausted. But the reshoots were amazing for me because it was six months after filming, and in between, I’d been bitten by the acting bug and gone off and done some auditions and got an agent and was taking it really seriously. So when I came to the reshoots, I really got into the acting side of things rather than not really knowing what I was doing. For the first time, I really dived into the character. I connected with him emotionally, and loved the acting process.” McKenna agrees. “Going for the first audition, you obviously have some idea that you want to act, but when you actually get to experience it, you realise that you really want to do this.”
Music is the heart of the film, with a soundtrack ranging from Duran Duran, The Cure, and Spandau Ballet to original compositions penned by Carney in collaboration with Gary Clarke. When asked if the film affected their music, Peelo-Walsh comments, “I’m still growing as a musician, so everything affects my music. I’m still trying to find my own sound. I was only fourteen when I shot the film, so I was just discovering that thing of writing my own music. But Sing Street made a huge difference to my whole life, and in a totally good way. John said, ‘I hope this doesn’t ruin your life!’ And I told him, ‘Don’t be mental! It’s changed my life for the better!’”
Adds McKenna: “I’ve always been into 1980s music. Whenever I try to write music in real life, I try to make it like that with big synths, punchy bass line, and keyboards, but listening to the Sing Street soundtrack opened up my idea of what music from that era is, so it’s broadened the whole musical inspiration for me.”
With its growing success and distribution, Sing Street continues to entertain and inspire audiences. For the two stars, the core message of the film is clear: “Follow your dreams, be who you are, and do what you want to do.”
Sing Street is released in cinemas on July 14.
