After mixing it up with bigger stars and a major studio with Begin Again, writer/director John Carney took things back down a notch with 2016’s incredibly winning Sing Street. This film featured the sweetness found in Carney’s breakout film, Once, and enlivened the material with an attitude akin to Son of Rambow. As a result, Sing Street is a very charming coming-of-age story, with several successful ideas put into action, along with a killer soundtrack. The film celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. As its reputation has grown, Lionsgate decided to provide the film with a deluxe 4K release, featuring a stronger video presentation, a new extra feature, and some extra goodies within the packaging. Fans and anyone else intrigued will be thrilled by this release.
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The Film
Set in 1980s inner-city Dublin, the story revolves around Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), the young son of two struggling parents (Aiden Gillen and Maria Doyle Kennedy). To save money, Conor is moved to a new school, Synge Street, which is troublesome for various reasons, from bullies to regulation shoes. It matters little compared to the biggest wrinkle for Conor – how to impress a girl.
It was not surprising to learn Sing Street was a semi-autobiographical film. There is also no reason not to expect Carney to keep going back to incorporating music in his films. The film provides Conor with an ingenious solution. To impress Raphina (Lucy Boynton), he forms a band named Sing Street.
With help from his vinyl-collecting loser brother Brendan (Jack Reynor) and multi-talented Eamon (Mark McKenna), Conor assembles a crew and develops a motley identity of sorts. It leads to the creation of numerous catchy tracks and a humorous understanding of how confidence in an image can make you feel better about yourself. This is especially important when the film focuses on conflict seen between Conor and school principal Brother Baxter (Don Wycherley).
That is not all the film is trying to say. Still, there is a lot of fun to be had in seeing Conor and his band dive into making music and their clumsy attempts at making music videos. 80s pop veteran Gary Clark helped write the songs with Carney, and the best part about the new music is how it feels like a bunch of high school kids made these songs. The tunes are catchy, and the lyrics put all the themes and issues right on the surface, which is what you’d expect.
Much of the film is focused exclusively on Conor, and young Walsh-Peelo is quite good in his debut role. As he adopts new looks that take him from a shy kid in a school uniform to Robert Smith of The Cure, we get to see how confidence pays off in his attitude towards those picking on him. We also get a good amount of focus on his friends and family.
Not all of the band members are fully fleshed out, but the gifted, Rabbit-loving Eamon and lil’ red-headed Darren (Ben Carolan) allow for some fun interactions. Raphina is more or less depicted as basically an object of desire for Conor. Still, the two do have good chemistry, and Boynton does just enough to feel like more than a shell of a character.
With one exception, the family life does not exactly approach the detailed levels of films like The Squid and the Whale or Submarine. That said, Reynor does take his familiar role as the oldest child who didn’t end up making it a long way thanks to an emphasis on emotion. The way this film sneakily turns into a strong story about brothers is appreciated.
Really, Sing Street is most effective when watching these kids try to make things work on the fly. Some inspired musical sequences lead to a lot of fun moments, as we watch them attempt to make their music and image cinematic in the form of these music videos. Without a doubt, “Drive it Like You Stole It” is a cinematic highlight for this movie, given the bouncy nature of the sequence, what these kids are going for with the music, and how it combines fantasy and reality.
Sing Street works really well as a crowd pleaser. It calls to mind some other solid coming-of-age stories and pays tribute to one of its obvious inspirations, The Commitments, but certainly marches to its own beat. The film has plenty of fun during its journey to an ending that will perhaps feel more emotional to some than others. I found it affecting enough, but was plenty engaged by seeing a mixed crew put together some fresh tunes, making hanging out with them just as much fun as anything.
The Video
Looking at this 4K upgrade, the disc is presented with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. While it’s not specifically stated whether there’s a new 4K scan in place, this is still a clear improvement over its initial Blu-ray release from ten years ago. Given how the film goes from presenting a fairly drab environment to one full of colors thanks to the fun costumes, pop-filled attitude of the music videos, and the fantasy elements, there’s plenty to appreciate about what the HDR and Dolby Vision provide here. The details are great to see as well, especially given the variety of these crazy costumes. Flesh tones are solid as well. And black levels are solid.
The Audio
This new release features a Dolby Atmos track, which does plenty to further immerse the viewer into what this music-driven film has to offer. It already sounded great before, but this is the kind of fun improvement that helps the different instruments at play stand out all the better, thanks to new uses of the surround channels and other elements. Dialogue is also loud and clear throughout.
The Extras
All of the legacy extras are brought over from the previous release, including a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, cast auditions, a music video, and a conversation between Carney and Adam Levine. It would have been nice to get a commentary track this time around, or hear from any of the kids ten years later, but the new extra is still worthwhile. For nearly 30 minutes, Carney sits down and discusses all he can about what it was like to make the film, the memories he has of production and the cast, and more. On top of all of this, the film’s new packaging features a sturdy slipbox that not only contains a nicely designed DigiPack, but a reproduction of a Lions Exercise Book from Conor’s school, featuring lyrics, drawings, and other fun details and easter eggs for fans. There’s also a Blu-ray and digital copy included.
The Verdict
Sing Street has aged very well over the years. It’s only grown in respect by those discovering the film, with the movie itself serving as a wonderful encapsulation of innocence brought to life by way of a very enjoyable cast, terrific music, and a coming-of-age style of storytelling that has resonated with many. Carney has since made a couple more films that are at least interesting, but Sing Street continues to feel like one of his most special efforts. On top of that, Lionsgate has put together a terrific new presentation of the film, with a 4K video upgrade, a Dolby Atmos track that enhances the film’s terrific soundtrack, a nice new featurette to go along with the legacy extras, and very cool packaging. Pick up this package, and drive it like you stole it.
Sing Street is now available to purchase on 4K UHD Blu-ray.
