Dublin misfit kid sent to new school immediately sets to starting a band with schoolmates to impress a girl, aping styles of the hot mid-80’s music videos his older brother shows him. The girl is impressed, drops her string of unserious older boyfriends and hops a boat to London with the boy hoping to find burned-out record executive Mark Ruffalo who’s willing to take a chance on some gifted kids. Carney, who is in the news this week for an unfortunate reason, has a knack for this sort of thing – charming movie with terrific music.
Mike D’A.:
Had this placed even maybe just 25% more emphasis on Brendan living vicariously through his younger brother, it might have been one of my films of the year.
D. Ehrlich reminds me I should watch these other two young-musician flicks:
It lacks the wallop of Stuart Murdoch’s God Help the Girl and the reckless abandon of We Are the Best!, but the palpable sincerity of Carney’s personal vision allows his musical to spin a fresh melody from a mess of familiar beats.