REVIEW: Sing Street

Sing Street - set in 1985, Dublin.

Imagine, if you will, the Inbetweeners crossed with Irish humour (like Father Ted or Mrs Brown's Boys) meets the Commitments meets Grease and you pretty much have Sing Street. Posh lad Conor moves from a posh school in Dublin to a state school. With his family, themselves verging on breaking point, tensions are high in the house. Dad, Robert (Game of Thrones Aiden Gillen) and mum are struggling financially and, finding solace in music, Conor strums guitar in his bedroom as the vocals from his parents ensue downstairs. Meanwhile his older brother, Brendan, (known as the drop out stoner) listens to his eclectic record collection to drown out the sound of the warring parents downstairs.

School isn't much better either as the school bully takes his opportunity to stamp his mark on the new kid and, after one particular encounter that involved a punch to the face, a small Irish accented voice said, "you should have done what he said". Turning around he sees a diminutive ginger kid who he befriends and starts talking to him. When school finishes, he sees a beautiful girl on the steps of a building opposite the school and he asks ginger kid who she is. He doesn't give any real answer, but our hero goes over to get her number which is met by an incredulous look from ginger kid. For reasons unknown he comes out with the best chat up line in 80's history. When she states that she's a model, he says that he's a singer in a band and would like to know if she would like to star in his next music video. The only issue is that he doesn't have a band - or a way to make a music video.

A story about true love and a quest for a girl is mixed delightfully with a quest for identity, Sing Street is a refreshing look at both the struggles of a musician and the angst of teenage years. Set in the 1980's it has a heady mix of great original 80's influenced music and classic 80's tracks too.  The original songs are catchy in their own right and the soundtrack is fantastic. Older brother, Brendan, serves as Conor's musical sage and provides Conor with more inspiration to help with his musical identity.

Sing Street is one of those rare gem of a films that make you laugh, cry and all in between, but  when the credits roll you feel good and optimistic. It's a fantastic film.

Sing Street is out on May 20th at all good cinemas now and will be available on DVD from 26th July!

POPSCORE: 9/10

What am I talking about? Sing Street movie
Where can I find out more? singstreetmovie.com
If you liked this try: The Commitments, Grease, Coyote Ugly, The Inbetweeners

Anything else?
Ferdia Walsh-Peelo's (who plays the lead role of Conor) father attended the real Synge Street Christian Brothers School.
     

REVIEW: Mad Max: Fury Road (15)

George Miller, the septuagenarian director, returns with his latest Mad Max movie - Mad Max: Fury Road. No Mel Gibson here, but replaced by the ladies favourite, Tom Hardy. Also featuring a few other well known names including South Africa’s finest, Charlize Theron, Mad Max takes it forward for the next generation.

Using a dazzling array of amazing stunts (here’s to the old school) and minimal computer aided special effects, Mad Max features a dystopian world where everything seems to be miles away, and the people are all a bit strange.

The world in which they live is one I would never like to live in, but it draws you in with its dystopian vibe and barren landscape. Tom Hardy grunts his way through the movie, and for all that he plays the titular character, the main character, it could be argued, that Furiosa (Theron) is the main hero(ine?).

The bad guys are suitably clownish and crazy with a side order of sinister and evil. The movie is pretty much a road trip from one place to another – then they turn around and come back again. Although light on story, the movie is a dazzling array of stunts and explosions and there is an awesome guitarist with flames coming out of his guitar which pretty much plays for the entire movie as the soundtrack.

The cars (sorry, I think I would be better placed saying vehicles) are characters unto themselves and are often garishly made. Imagine The Fast and the Furious cars with horns and pipes and spikes and a jaded paint job and you wouldn’t be too far from this movie.

The movie is really quite good and I enjoyed it even though it was light on story and heavy on action. But, when a movie is this gripping, you can forgive such fallacies.

There are a couple of points about the movie I want to raise though – this includes the fact that Mad Max doesn’t really feature in this movie as much as he should have, and there was not a lot of dialogue or work for Hardy to do – apart from being tied up and being grumpy. Nicholas Holt’s character Nux, was suitable crazy and helped keep up the frenetic tempo we would expect the film to be. He also gets the best line: “Oh what a day, what a lovely day!”  Theron does a good turn as the heroine taking the slave girls away from the antagonist, and trying to save them. She is suitably kick ass and is a strong independent woman.

The movie overall is a good one, and there is talk of a few sequels too – hopefully Max will be featured more in it, but if not, maybe there’s more scope for a Mad Maxine or something. Who knows?

Mad Max: Fury Road is available on DVD, Blu Ray and download/streaming now.

POPSCORE: 8/10 

What am I talking about? Mad Max: Fury Road

Where can I find out more? http://www.madmaxmovie.com/

If you like this try: The original Mad Max movies, Fast And the Furious (if you like the road trip/car racing part), The Book of Eli, I Am Legend (both of these if you like the apocalyptic loner thing)