Starts promisingly, ends in cliché

Rating: 5/10 (2 February 2017)

"Sing Street" is this year's entry in the UK/Ireland coming-of-age movie genre. These movies are generally a treat. You get some reality from these movies that you don't generally get from coming- of-age films from the US. When a movie hits some real notes you watch closely, thinking that it might be about to break free from the reins of cliché and show you something different. You generally also get poignancy in the bargain: truth hits home.
"Sing Street" starts like that, and it starts well. Connor is a fifteen year old high school kid who has to change schools due to financial difficulty his constantly warring parents are experiencing. The school is a nightmare, filled with bullies, delinquents, and teachers as violent as both.
Connor has a plan, though: he wants to start a band. He does this with an ease that feels a bit contrived. In fact, everything that happens with the band seems too easy: all the members can play adequately from the get go, despite only being in their middle teens, and they come together much quicker than seems likely. When Connor sings, the voice doesn't sound like it comes from his body, or even from the environment the character is in. It sounds like it comes from a recording studio, and a man much older with more training, and maybe even some studio effects to balance it out.
If Connor can sing this well, why is he looking to start a band with a bunch of school friends? Shouldn't he be on "Top of the Pops"?
"Sing Street" is a movie that starts like a breath of fresh air, a movie that could end up containing truth. Alas, it doesn't; it heads into cliché territory and never really looks back.
The movie features a dream sequence in which everyone sings and dances and priests do cartwheels. While watching this, I wasn't sure if what I was watching was supposed to be fantasy or just more of the same. That's the problem with the whole movie.