Lukas Moodysson’s euphoric 2013 We Are the Best! was more honest in this regard, showing youthful music-making as the phase it so often is.
But it just as closely resembles Lukas Moodysson’s winning 2013 Swedish drama We Are the Best!, about a trio of 13-year-old Stockholm girls who become a punk group largely to irritate some older boys, and then find that the genre’s built-in explosive rebellion expresses something they were missing in their lives.
Putting together the band has the naive enthusiasm reminiscent of the punk-rock girls in the 2013 Swedish film "We Are the Best!".
The example of the anarchic British icons is also what motivated the dorky teenage heroines of “We Are the Best!” to take the stage; Carney’s pic merits comparison with Lukas Moodysson’s 2013 gem in many respects, though a battle-of-the-bands showdown between their respective collectives would certainly be the most welcome way to weigh the films up against each other.
In this regard, Sing Street reminded me of an Irish-flavored We Are the Best!, a 2014 Swedish film about 13-year-old girls forming a punk band — only with better music and more emotional pull.
It lacks the wallop of Stuart Murdoch's "God Help the Girl" and the reckless abandon of "We Are the Best!," but the palpable sincerity of Carney's personal vision allows his musical to spin a fresh melody from a mess of familiar beats.