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Created May 08, 2016 05:32PM PST • Edited Jul 17, 2016 03:30PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   Sing Street is a perfect rock-n-roll movie, set around a band who defies authority, gets popular and wins The Girl. She’s played by Lucy Boynton, who makes an indelible first impression – ruby lips half-parted, cigarette hanging out one side. She turns out to have a tough situation herself, adding to the movie’s depth.

   Writer-director John Carney based Sing Street on his experience at Dublin’s Synge Street Catholic high school, giving it a mix of authenticity and yearning. Speaking of Carney, I was lukewarm to Once, his first movie. But he’s bowled me over with this sophomore effort. It unfolds like an ideal music video, full of great songs, a few laughs and plenty of touchstones that ring true to most anyone’s high school experience.

   It’s much more than an extended video however. It’s a well wrought film, simply the best of the year so far.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Ferdia Walsh-Peelo credibly goes from awkward kid to sophisticated rocker over the course of the movie. It’s a remarkable transformation. If he did his own singing, this teen newcomer is a performer of note.

   Lucy Boynton is an actress of note and skill, proving it by playing the sexy muse, even though she’s not tremendously sexy, by movie standards.

   Family

   • Jack Reynor grows in charisma as the disillusioned older brother. He’s especially charismatic in the prom dream scene.
   • Aidan Gillen makes a cutting impression as a father down on his luck.
   • Maria Doyle Kennedy does the same as his soon-to-be ex-wife.
   • Kelly Thornton is less striking as their other child.

   Sing Street

   • Ben Carolan is charming as a little guy who finds success managing a high school band.
   • Mark McKenna has a John Lennon vibe as the band’s main musical talent.
   • Percy Chamburuka • Conor Hamilton • Karl Rice • Ian Kenny

   Others

   • Don Wycherley effectively plays a hard-ass priest.
   • Lydia McGuinness effectively goes from exasperated to sexy as one of the bandmate’s mom.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

7. Female Costars Really Great 4.5

8. Male Costars Really Great 4.5

10. Film

    Perfect 5.0

    John Carney has created a trifecta: a perfect high school, rock-n-roll and 80s film.

    The rough and tumble scenes in the boys high school are especially well drawn, a Lord of the Flies environment where toughness and conformity are required to get by. The family drama also strikes a chord, from a middle-class family tightening its belt, to an orphan making her way in the world, to a bully living with alcoholic parents in the projects.

    But it is the wonder of musical creation that most distinguishes Sing Street. Starting with a “Hey kids, let’s start a band” moment, it provides an omniscient look at how a band comes together and how songs go from ideas to their full flowering.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Perfect 5.0

13. Music Perfect 5.0

    The perfect soundtrack includes real 80s songs from The Cure, Duran Duran, The Jam, Joe Jackson and Hall & Oates. I could have done without that last, but recognize its relevance.

    Sing Street’s faux-80s songs are notably terrific, especially Girls, Brown Shoes, Go Now, Up and Drive It Like You Stole It. Note that some are sang by Sing Street (presumably the actors in the movie) and others by real stars like Adam Levine.

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    The pseudo-prom scene is a classic. Pity it’s not available as an independent video.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.4

    Ascending Edge Pattern: 1.7 on Sex, 2.5 on Violence and a full 3.0 on Rudeness.

17. Sex Titillating 1.7

18. Violence Fierce 2.5

19. Rudeness Profane 3.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.8

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0