1. Lauren Whyte
Sing Street (2016, Ireland/UK/USA)
Boy Meets Girl. Girl Unimpressed. Boy Starts Band.
1. Intro – up to ‘we have to form a band’
A young boy is forced to move from a private school and go to a state school. He meets a
beautiful girl and tells her that he is in a band and wants her to feature in his music video.
The issue is that he doesn’t have a band and has used this is as a ploy to get the girl to
speak to him. As a result of this, he is then forced to make a band.
2. Act 1 – the band together – their first video
Connor (Cosmo) realizes he can form the band from boys that are at his new school. He
goes on a journey to piece together his band that he will use to impress the girl. When
the futurist band forms they work on a song that they can use in the music video. Connor
and his band meet to film the music video with the beautiful girl. She is unimpressed by
the set, but likes the song that they perform.
3. Act 2 – making it work – more videos – aiming for the concert
As the band begin to make more music and create unique songs they also begin to feel
they need to update their appearance. Connor dyes his hair multiple different colors and
wears make up to school. The band travel to film another video. Connor and the beautiful
girl kiss after she throws herself into the water. We learn more about her relationship
with her parents. The band prepares to aim for their end of term concert.
4. Act 3 – Parents split up – she’s gone – the concert – it all comes together
Connors family fall apart as we see his mom is having an affair with her boss and wants
to leavehis father as shefeels he neglected her. She moves in with her boss and his father
buys his own apartment. Cosmo goes to the girls home to look for Raphina, but he is told
by one of her housemates that she left the previous night for London with her boyfriend.
Not long after, Cosmo spots Raphina returning to the home with a bruise on her cheek.
The two go to the park where Raphina says that she left her boyfriend and he struck her.
The night of the dance arrives, and the band wins over the students. They play a great
show until Cosmo says they will play a slow song. Most of the other student’s head to the
back of the gym, but the couples dance together. For their final song, the band plays
"Brown Shoes", which is for people likeBaxter and allthe other bullies the kids encounter.
Cosmo hands out masks of Baxter's face to the other students. Raphina shows up as the
band is playing the song to an excited crowd. Cosmo joins Raphina after the show.
5. Coda… and away we go
Connor and Raphina go to Brendan, Connors brother, and persuade him to drive them
down to where his grandfather’s boat was docked in order for them to travel to London.
Brendan agrees to drive them there. Cosmo says his goodbyes to his parents even though
neither can hear him. They arrive by the ocean and Connor says goodbye to his brother.
Brendan watches them leave. It begins to rain as they run into the ferry that is heading to
England, they decide to follow it.
2. Lauren Whyte
Genre
Sing Street establishes its musical genre through the use of songs that are featured in the film.
Unlike many other musical films, Sing Street doesn’t spontaneously burst into song. Instead, the
songs are introduced how they would be in real life. We only hear the band perform when they
are rehearsing or performing.
Furthermore, Sing Street establish its romance genre through the budding relationship the
viewers witness between Raphina and Connor/Cosmo. The basis of the film revolves around
Connor trying to impress Raphina with his band. Connor admires how beautiful Raphina is at the
beginning of the film and strives to make her his girlfriend.
Comedy is sometimes portrayed through the main character’s mannerisms and his one liners to
Raphina that he doesn’t always intend to be funny. His band mates can be seen at times acting
in a funny way or even during the fantasy scene where a strict teacher is dancing in a flamboyant
way.
Social realism is portrayed clearly throughout Sing Street. The film identifies with working class
people. The main character’s family live in a nice house but some of the other characters live in
flats. There are some poor kids at the school featured to allow social realism to be portrayed
clearly. During one scene, someone runs out with rat on astick, this clearly shows that lifeis grim.
Purpose
Feature films are made initially to make money. The money can be used to go on and establish
the directors and producers and allow them to make other films in the future. Adaptations can
be made of the initial filmusing the money that has been generated too. This allows the careers
of those involved to blossom as they are able to portray their skill set throughout the film. It also
creates a nation identity of success if the feature film does well.
Audience
As for the psychographics of the film, I believe that people who enjoy watching people succeed
will enjoy this film as Connor works hard to establish himself as an artist and winning over
Raphina. Sing Street is aimed at a target audience of teenagers who can empathize with the
characters in the film as they are of a similar age. Adults may also enjoy the film as they may be
able to look back on the film and reminisce about their childhood. They are going through the
same daily lifestyle of going to school 5 days a week. Boys may be able to empathize with the
main character, Connor, as they may have also had a crush on a girl that has made them willing
to do anything just to grasp her attention. However, girls may also be interested in the film as
they stereotypically are drawn to romantic films. They may enjoy watching the chase of the boy
frantically trying to win over the girl, Raphina.
