Sing Street
“Middling film complete with nostalgic 1980’s throwback costume, music, and unfortunately, the racist and male-centric tropes of that decade as well.”
Title: Sing Street (2016)
Director: John Carney 👨🏼🇮🇪
Writer: John Carney 👨🏼🇮🇪
Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸
Technical: 3.5/5
A middling film that falls into the “feel-good” and autobiographical categories, Sing Street comes complete with nostalgic 1980s throwback costume, music, and unfortunately, the racist and sexist tropes of that decade as well. It’s a cute film, sure, but it travels familiar territory by those who have done this better and/or earlier. School of Rock (2003) or Where the Wild Things Are (2009), for example, have both harnessed the raw, unshackled optimism of youth into film with music as its heartbeat. The only thing Sing Street brings to the table is an Irish take on an old story.
Gender: 1/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? NOPE
The only woman with more than a handful of lines is the film’s love interest, Raphina (Lucy Boynton), and I found it disturbing that her identity is wholly wrapped up in her looks. Furthermore, the main character of Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) feeds into that damaging worldview by a) only complimenting her on her looks or b) staying silent when Raphina is being self-deprecating, as in the below exchanges.
One creepy exchange where Raphina says she isn’t worthy of her father’s love:
For extra discomfort, let’s throw in domestic violence:
While the above exchanges could be chalked up to characterization—women should be flawed and vulnerable in media, just as all humans are in real life—there’s no narrative interest in Raphina’s life beyond what she means to Conor. Director-writer John Carney’s interview with Screen Crush only confirms this: When asked about the romance depicted in Sing Street, Carney pivots to himself, mentioning his band, bullies, teachers, and his parents, before blithely addressing the question with “And I got the girl that I fancied” as if women are objects to be won.
Race: 1.75/5
Sing Street’s one character of color materializes as a tokenized Black student named Ngig (Percy Chamburuka) who is part of Conor’s band but who never gets more than a few lines.
The film further reveals its lack of awareness when the band shoots their first music video. Raphina dons a Japanese kimono and—to the offensive keyboard plinks of “Turning Japanese” by the Vapors—she puts her hands together and bobs her head side-to-side before the song ends with a loud, drawn-out gong.
I get that this type of cultural appropriation was painfully true to the ‘80s; however, the creative decision to regurgitate it for a 2016 movie simply shouldn’t have happened. When I heard the gong sound, the kick to the gut was real. (Thanks, FOX News.)
Mediaversity Grade: D 2.08/5
Was this entertaining to watch? Sure, if not outstanding or memorable. Was it diverse or inclusive? Not in the slightest. And while the autobiographical nature of the film scrabbled back a point or two for Sing Street, Carney really rose-tints the era, stereotypes and all.
I wish Carney had taken a cue from other nostalgic works. Stranger Things or “San Junipero” from Black Mirror both took the best of their source materials and left the offensive crap in the past. Sing Street should have done so too.
7/1/2021: Updated to reflect current scoring methodology