Film Diary Retrospective: John Carney Movies
*A note from the author*
As I alluded to in my last post, I’ve had a few pieces I’ve been working on for this substack for a little while now but just haven’t had the time to really work on and finish them. This is one of those pieces. I started writing this back at the end of January with the intention of posting it sometime in mid-February. Clearly that did not happen. In my attempt to not waste the work I put in months ago, I left the intro I wrote for it then and then just finished writing about the last three movies this week. My memory of these movies is a bit hazy because it’s been a few months since I watched them so I apologize for any substantial lack of detail, my brain can only remember so much. Without further ado, please enjoy this little retrospective that no one asked for.
I know this is a somewhat random retrospective to be doing BUT I did rewatch Once (2007) over a month ago and it reminded me of #1 how much that movie ruled my life in high school and #2 that John Carney has made a few other movies, some that I’ve seen and some that I haven’t and I thought hey maybe it’d be a fun little thing to watch all of them.
The main consistent component in Carney’s movies is music. While his first movie On the Edge (2001) doesn’t totally have that musical movie element, the rest of his films all feature original songs performed by the actors in their respective movies. It’s basically become his trademark.
Carney’s movies, along with music, also contain an earnestness that might come off as corny to most, but beneath the schmaltz is an endearing quality that makes it hard not to smile even in the corniest of moments. Out of the five films that I’m about to dive into, Once and Sing Street (2016) are his most well-known and probably feature the best songs. While this retrospective wasn’t super intentional, it was a fun, sweet little journey watching these movies and I’m eager to share my findings.
At the beginning- On the Edge (2001)
*trigger warning for suicide*
Carney’s first solo directing effort is a little-known Irish movie called On the Edge, which he wrote with a guy named Daniel James who has no other writing credits. My main reason for seeking it out over a year ago is because it stars a young Cillian Murphy who is one of my absolute favorites (and he’s an Oscar winner now, I’m so proud). But it’s become a favorite after watching it for a second time even though the only version I can find at the moment is on YouTube that has foreign language subtitles and the audio cuts out every 10 minutes or so.
Cillian plays a 20-something year old Irish lad who has suicidal tendencies and is admitted into a psychiatric hospital after an attempt to end his life. It’s got some One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest vibes, especially since Cillian’s character is also a bit of a wise ass and doesn’t show a lot of respect for the authority figures in the hospital. But once you get past the edges, he’s really just a big softie. He befriends and falls for a young woman with her own unique set of issues, and despite never encountering someone like her before, he genuinely ends up caring for her.
Thematically it is heavy, but its depiction of mental health is oddly refreshing. Instead of judgement, there’s an understanding as to why these kids are the way they are. It’s really the only movie of Carney’s that directly addresses mental health (Sing Street does a bit but not to this extent). It might come off as a tad melodramatic at times but it still has a lot of heart, and a young and troubled Cillian Murphy goes a long way.
While the musical element that’s so present in Carney’s other films is lacking in this, he is credited with composing the score, signifying his early infatuation with music. The soundtrack itself features some great angsty throwbacks from Smashing Pumpkins to The Pixies. In its own way, On the Edge is kind of the perfect debut feature for Carney. He doesn’t come right out the gate for what he ends up being known for thanks to his future movies, but instead he showcases his talents as a writer and composer with a film that lovingly captures the hardships of coping with life’s difficulties. Throw in Irish legend Stephen Rea as the head of the hospital (and the main psychiatrist) and you’ve got a little treat of a movie that lays the foundation down for Carney’s future work.
It’s time to sing and get sad- Once (2007)
Once is Carney’s lightning in a bottle moment. This little film is made in a handheld/documentary style that follows two musicians that meet each other on the streets of Dublin and form a deep friendship that blossoms from the music they start to write together. Their relationship grows into something even more, but their own respective life situations keep them from being able to be together.
Along with the bond between the two main characters, the main highlight of Once is the original songs featured in it written by the stars of the film, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. The most famous song is ‘Falling Slowly,’ mostly thanks to the Oscars nominating it for Best Original Song that year. And it won! And it deserved to, it’s a beautiful song. The music became so listened to and loved that Once eventually evolved into a hit Broadway musical.
I discovered Once in high school, I don’t exactly remember how but at some point that DVD ended up in my home thanks to Netflix (remember those days?). I also think my creative writing teacher showed it in class at some point and I was the only one really excited about it. Anyways, despite never having any sort of experience at that time in my life similar to what the main characters go through, I felt deeply connected to the story and found myself feeling like I knew what that kind of love and “heartbreak” felt like. After rewatching Once recently, 16-year-old me had no idea what she was talking about (big shock there). 31-year-old me, on the other hand, is a whole different story. However devastating I found Once in high school, it resonates with me so much more now and carries more emotional weight that hit me smack in the face while rewatching it. Having gone through my own romantic relationships and experiencing love and friendship in its many different forms made this rewatch deep, emotional, and oddly therapeutic.
It's safe to say that Once is the high point of Carney’s career. While his next few movies have their own uniqueness to them, Once still stands out as his most vulnerable and beautiful film, largely thanks to the original songs.
A more mainstream follow up- Begin Again (2013)
Six years after his seminal film, Carney comes back with a brand-new, all-star lineup movie called Begin Again. Keira Knightley plays Gretta, the ex-girlfriend to rising star Dave (Adam Levine). The duo started out writing songs together with Dave performing them, which eventually got him recognized by a record label. They moved to New York as a couple but break up after it’s clear that the fame has gone to Dave’s head (and he also cheated on her, big whoops). After declaring she’s moving back to London, Gretta hangs out and gets drunk with her friend Steve (James Corden kind of before everyone hated him) and performs at an open mic night which happens to be attended by failing music producer Dan (a grumpy alcoholic Mark Ruffalo). Dan insists that Gretta is super talented and wants to make an album with her. And they do, and that’s basically the movie.
I saw this when it came out with the knowledge that it was by the same director as Once, but it certainly has a very different, much more mainstream vibe. The charm that it does possess comes from an array of elements, maybe not all very consistent but it’s there: the original music, how that music is staged and performed, Mark Rufalo’s character and his relationship with his daughter (Haillee Steinfeld), Keira Knightley at times (she might have been a tad miscast), and definitely not James Corden.
Comparing this to Once is a silly feat, they are so incredibly different which admittedly is kind of nice. Carney isn’t trying to cheaply recreate and recapture what makes Once so special. He instead made a movie critiquing the music industry while still showcasing how unique and important music is. For the original songs for Begin Again, Carney employed the musical talents of Gregg Alexander, the lead singer and songwriter for the band the New Radicals (a fun fact I literally just learned five minutes ago). While the music is a bit more cutesy than what’s featured in Once, it fits in well with the world that Carney creates here. I can see it being a disappointment if you’re expecting something in the same vein as Once, but as its own thing, Begin Again is sweet, inoffensive, and has some unique musical elements that make it worth watching if all of that is your vibe.
Back to his roots- Sing Street (2016)
Three years after Begin Again, Carney decides to take his talents back to Ireland with the sweet and electric Sing Street. It follows Dublin teenager Conor who decides to start a band after meeting a girl who he desperately wants to impress. He forms the band with fellow kids from school and what started as an attempt to win over a girl turns into a meaningful escape from the troubles of life (parents divorcing, a rebellious brother, a vindictive teacher).
I was working at an independent movie theater in Manhattan (the Angelika Film Center for those that are curious) when Sing Street came out, and it absolutely swept through the theater in the best possible way. People kept seeing it as long as it was playing and I never heard a negative thing about it. Unfortunately, I never got around to seeing what all the hype was about (I worked a stupid about in my mid-20s with very little to show for it). Finally getting around to watching it a few months ago, I ache to be able to go back in time and actually prioritize seeing it in theaters because it must have been such a blast to see it on the big screen with a crowd.
With Sing Street, Carney once again uses original music and puts it in a different context that we haven’t seen from him yet; a teenage boy being inspired by the bands that he discovers, whether its from hearing them on TV or his brother playing him a record. Each song he and his friends write is inspired by different rock genres from the 80s, and it’s a very clever way of depicting just how influential music can be, especially at that age when all you wanna do is make whatever you listen to your entire essence and personality. This time around, the songs were written by prolific music producer and songwriter Gary Clark. His history of writing and producing songs for a variety of different artists made him a perfect fit for creating the songs for this, since each one is an homage to a different band/genre. His crowning contribution to Sing Street is the song ‘Drive it Like You Stole It’ and its incorporation into the film is probably one of the most memorable and electrifying scenes (and it gets bonus points from me for featuring Adian Gillen as Conor’s dad getting to dance a bit).
Thanks to the catchy and mostly upbeat original songs, it’s impossible to be in a bad mood while watching Sing Street. It’s the perfect positive antidote if you’re itching for some fun original movie “musical” content.
And after a brief hiatus- Flora and Son (2023)
It’s hard to believe that after the success of Sing Street, Carney didn’t make another movie for seven years but surprisingly that is the case. Although in between Sing Street and his follow up film, he was busy developing the show Modern Love for Amazon, which he created and directed several episodes of (it sounds kind of interesting, I’m honestly probably gonna check it out at some point and maybe write about it, who knows).
Anyways, Carney did indeed make another movie and it’s called Flora and Son. It’s set in Ireland and follows single mom Flora who is struggling to connect with her son who’s been acting out at school and prefers to hang out with his dad instead of her. In an attempt to find a healthy hobby for her son, she finds a guitar in a dumpster and tries to give it to him as a present of sorts which doesn’t go over that well. Stuck with the guitar, she decides to try and teach herself how to play with the help of YouTube videos which leads her to find Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a guitar teacher who offers classes over Zoom. She decides to start taking the classes and over the course of these sessions, Flora and Jeff develop a friendship that seems to be veering towards a possible romantic connection. She also discovers that her son does actually like to create his own music (electronically) and they start doing that together which is nice.
As with pretty much every John Carney movie, there’s a sweetness to Flora and Son and it mostly comes from the scenes with Eve Hewson as Flora (I’ve seen her in a few movies and I only just found out that she’s Bono’s daughter, fun fact) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. For a good amount of the movie Flora is seen going to clubs, getting in fights with her son or her ex, and is just generally a bit rough around the edges. But once she gets some time to focus more on her own creative talents (that she doesn’t even realize she has), she has such an engaging charm that kind of makes her impossible not to like (and Eve Hewson gives a pretty stellar performance). Once she and Joseph Gordon-Levitt get to know each other more and sing songs together (virtually and in person kind of), it becomes easier for her to start really connecting with her son since they both discover that they actually have something in common: making music.
This time around, Carney worked on the original music with his last collaborator, Gary Clark. I believe it’s a mix of original songs and a few covers (Clark wrote the music for a version of a Tom Waits song that Joseph Gordon-Levitt sings which is pretty neat). For me, Flora and Son and Begin Again have a similar vibe in terms of how slightly corny (and I use that term lovingly) the music can be as well as some of the story elements. I had heard of Flora and Son when it made its rounds at festivals like Sundance, and I know it made a brief appearance in some theaters (Alamo Drafthouse had a lot of ads for it at one point if my memory is correct). But now I believe it has a permanent home at Apple TV+, which is where I watched it. It’s a sweet little film that is a lovely reminder (like most of Carney’s movies) of the powerful connections music can form, whether it’s between a family member or a new romantic partner.
In conclusion…music is great
Carney’s career spans over 20 years, and in that time the films he’s made all share some sort of connection to music. Clearly music has played a large part in his life, he even was a bass player in an indie rock band in Ireland called The Frames. So his constant incorporation of original music in his movies makes a lot of sense, and I hope it’s something that he never changes. I’m also hoping we don’t have to wait another seven years for him to make another movie. While the caliber of music varies from film to film, it’s hard to deny that each one has a certain charm that makes it impossible not to get something out of. I would recommend all of his movies with some slight caveats. The schmaltzy elements of Begin Again and Flora and Son might not be for everyone but they’re still fun. Sing Street is elevated schmaltz with some really great and catchy songs, and the bond that Conor has with his bandmates and brother especially is beyond heartwarming. Once is just hands down a fantastic movie with probably the best music featured in any of Carney’s movies. And I will always have a spot in my heart for On the Edge. For a first feature it’s pretty incredible and casts no judgement towards its troubled characters.
All in all, I’m quite happy that I took this journey through John Carney’s filmography. It’s been a lovely musical ride and goes to show that original movies with original music can be made and have the ability to be wonderfully personal, vulnerable, positive and just overall incredibly life-affirming.