As the summer draws near and audiences start to flock from one Disney movie (“The Jungle Book”) to the next (“Captain America: Civil War”), it’s important to remember there are plenty of indie movies that provide a lovely alternative to tentpole fare. One such film is the Weinstein Company’s coming-0f-age musical “Sing Street,” which just landed a ringing endorsement from U2 frontman Bono.
The iconic singer took in a screening of John Carney‘s charming music-driven movie and came away raving about his fellow Irish rock stars on U2’s official website. The film follows a 14-year-old boy (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) who starts a band to impress a girl (Lucy Boynton), though the music winds up transporting him from the turmoil of his everyday life and transforming him and his oddball friends into something greater.
Bono wrote that “in truth, at the same stage, U2 were not as good as the kids in ‘Sing Street.’ In truth most films you’ll see this year won’t touch ‘Sing Street.” That’s high praise from coming from Bono, who said the film transported him back to his own youth in Ireland.
“I remember the 1980s with somewhat of a blush. No man’s hair should be bigger than his girlfriend’s. But that was the time. Dublin in Technicolor. In reality it was monochrome and in the grip of a recession, But on videotape, you could be transported. You could wear what you liked, and the more outrageous the better. Anything to wind up the jackbooted skinheads on Dublin’s north side. Makeup on a boy drove rockers wild, and the teachers wilder. Thank God for Bowie, who made all the black eyes okay. And allowed people to find out who they were,” wrote Bono before crediting his brother for giving him the gift of music through his first guitar.
It was that guitar, a gift from his sibling, that led Bono to form a band… which of course went on to become one of the most successful groups of all-time. The characters in “Sing Street” dare to dream the same way. They came from nothing and start out clueless, but come together to form a band that’s more than the sum of its parts. It’s an inspirational story of a group of underdogs, and well worth your time amid a sea of CG-driven blockbusters. Check it out now while the indie film is still in theaters.