--- description: John Carney’s new film is set in 1985 Dublin title: Review: ‘Sing Street’ Honors the DIY Spirit image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt799854acaead8ef2/69888f3a2dce0123d49e8a9a/day_1_web_41_lg.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Review: _Sing Street_ Honors the DIY Spirit  by [Stephanie Zacharek](/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Film Critic Apr 14, 2016 10:29 AM CUT  SING STREET SING STREET© 2015 The Weinstein Company. All Rights Reserved.  by [Stephanie Zacharek](/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Film Critic Apr 14, 2016 10:29 AM CUT From the minute some enterprising soul first plugged a guitar into an amp, bored kids everywhere have been making three-chord symphonies out of their crummy lives. That’s the spirit John Carney (Once, Begin Again) captures in _Sing Street_, set in 1985 Dublin. Fourteen-year-old Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) has been moved from his posh school to a terrible new one, and his parents, broke and unhappy, are splitting up. With the spiritual guidance of his stoner older brother Brendan (sleepy-sexy Jack Reynor), he forms a band. What else is there to do? Before long, Conor and his mates have come up with a handful of pure pop confections, with some cheerfully rough-around-the-edges music videos to match. He also earns the affection of a winsome aspiring model (Lucy Boynton). You’ve seen every element of _Sing Street_ hundreds of times before—it’s Carney’s knack for assembling them that makes the difference. In his hands, this isn’t just a nostalgia trip. It’s an homage to teenage kicks and the urgency of getting them any way you can. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4293552/sing-street-movie-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4293552/sing-street-movie-review/"},"headline":"Review: Sing Street Honors the DIY Spirit","datePublished":"2016-04-14T10:29:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:44:00.913Z","description":"John Carney’s new film is set in 1985 Dublin","url":"https://time.com/4293552/sing-street-movie-review/","keywords":["movies","review"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt799854acaead8ef2/69888f3a2dce0123d49e8a9a/day_1_web_41_lg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Zacharek","jobTitle":"Film Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt799854acaead8ef2/69888f3a2dce0123d49e8a9a/day_1_web_41_lg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"SING STREET","caption":"SING STREET","creditText":"© 2015 The Weinstein Company. All Rights Reserved.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4293552/sing-street-movie-review/","name":"Review: Sing Street Honors the DIY Spirit"}}]}] ```