Music-driven comedy Sing Street will bring you back to the ’80s

John Carney’s Sing Street is a hugely enjoyable music-driven comedy that’s set in Ireland 30 years ago, writes Ed Power

OHN Carney’s latest film, Sing Street, is informed by a period of intense unhappiness in the director’s own life. In his teens, he transferred from a well-to-do fee-paying school in south Dublin to a rough-at-the-edges CBS in the inner city. He was teased and bullied — every day reminded he didn’t belong.

So you might expect Sing Street to be a bit of a downer, a bit Ken Loach meets Roddy Doyle. Actually, it’s the exact opposite. Carney’s fifth feature as director is a deeply joyful musical comedy that reads as a valentine to the optimism and boundless energy of youth. Even a scuffed, rough-at-the-edges childhood deserved to be celebrated, the director believes.