A movie that sings to me...

I've been meaning to come back and write a bit here again and I've been waiting for the movie that spoke to me for the reasons I started this blog which was to impress a girl I was madly in love with. Her name was Katy. I so wanted to show off my writing to her that I created Mr. Unhappy, a creation from my youth when I thought of writing a horror movie. I'm not the most adventurous or sexy man and having someone like her I wanted to show off a skill I had... And it didn't work. So I've had a love/hate relationship with my blog. I love to write it and I love to do the necessary work (watching movies) to get this job done. I hate the reminder of my failed love life. After my stepmother Mimi passed away I stopped writing because well I was heartbroken for my father and I only have so much pain I can deal with at one time. 

Yet I wanted to come back. I wanted to find that one movie that encapsulated what I want to see in a movie. I thought I would need a blockbuster to draw me back in. I went out and watched the movies that most would consider worthy of praise and a review. I saw Deadpool (awesome), Batman VS Superman (awesome though you wouldn't know it from the way critics ripped it) and now Captain America: Civil War (slightly disappointed after the build up) and nothing worked. I needed a movie that touched me and that spoke to me the way some of these movies have. Movies like Her, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Begin Again. Then I was in a movie and a trailer came on for a new movie by the director of Once and Begin Again. A movie that spoke to me and how I feel daily. The miserable and yet resigned unhappiness that could be changed so easily but can't be forced. So I went to see Sing Street and well...it worked.

Sing Street

When I was in high school I took a radio class where we teenagers were given a radio show and a microphone and told to "Find our voice and use it." It brought me out of my shell and made me a different person. It made me grow and showed me things about life like always keep reaching for dreams because they can come true. It's both a horrible lesson and a great one. I loved finding my voice but for me it didn't work out. I still write and have ideas but they aren't fleshed out anymore with same passionate desire to put my version of love on screen. Mostly because I've given up. On love, on being with someone, on finding someone, on the effort and pain it brings. Still though I can be touched by that old radio DJ in me that believed wholly that I was destined to find that one person and get married. That would be an adventure and would define the rest of my life. Sing Street is one of those moments for me. It makes me smile and made me happy. It gave me hope.

Sing Street is a simple movie. The tagline lays it out in simple honest words. Nothing cute about it. "1980's Dublin. Boy Meets Girl. Girl Unimpressed. Boy Starts Band." That's the poster and honestly that's the movie. Sure there is a richer story but when you break down what happens... Boy (Conor) meets girl (Raphina). Raphina is underwhelmed with Conor. Conor starts a band to win her heart. That's it. It's a coming of age story and a musical which calls back all the feelings of growing up in the 80's. Music videos were new and raw. Conor and his brother Brenden analyze the music playing on Top of the Pops (British MTV-like show) while dreaming of being a musician. His parents have fallen on hard times and they argue more and more. Conor and Brenden escape this through music but it isn't until Conor sees the beautiful Raphina ( who lives across from Conor's new school Synge Street) that Conor realizes he has to form a band and make music videos to show Raphina that she should be with him. Thus begins the adventure of finding the band, writing songs and shooting videos with Raphina as the star. It encompasses every moment of his life. The pain of being in a broken home, the desire he has for this woman he loves simply for being her, and the pain of being a loser in high school. It's an evolution where the band starts and becomes a shield against the world. He stands up to bullies (both a fellow student and the head priest at the school), expresses his love for this mysterious "model" that pretends she is bigger than she actually is and finds his voice in the music he creates for this one beautiful woman.

And yet it isn't simple. It's a love story and as we all know love is anything but simple. It has pitfalls and pain and growth. There is a bit of hate and hurt feeling and then there is a moment of complete understanding where you realize that whatever this world has in for you, the person sitting next to you is the most important person in the world. Someone once told me that being in love is like being insane. It makes sense when you think about it. You can't explain why this person means everything to you. It isn't a normal feeling. And perhaps most telling is that when you love someone (at least in my experience) will question it and tell you that what you are feeling isn't love. People in love will try to break you of this feeling...I'm assuming so you won't be so vulnerable to someone like they are. That they never want to see you in pain and realize that those moments of convergence don't happen for everyone. It's a controlled insanity because you can run away from it and if it doesn't work out you can move on.  You just won't move on completely. Sing Street sells this insanity. From the formation of the band solely to win the heart of a girl. I can say that when I watch a romantic comedy or a romance movie, you can tell the ones that actually believe in love because they get it. They make you feel it. A false movie just sticks out like a sore thumb and can even get to the point of pissing you off. 

So if you want a movie that gets it right, Sing Street is that. They know. They feel. They create love on screen. It's so rare and so overwhelmingly touching that it breaks your heart when the movie ends. Not because love fails but because watching this movie is so enjoyable that you want to live here for a few more hours....a lifetime. Sing Street is the best movie I've seen this year and is the movie that broke me out of this funk of not reviewing movies. I'm gonna try to get back on the horse. I may not have the girl of my dreams and I may not ever have her but as Sing Street sings "This is your life. You gotta grab the wheel and own it. And drive it like you stole it." 

Mr. Unhappy sez: Seeing this movie shouldn't be optional, it is the type of movie that comes around once in a lifetime that tells you what life and love is.