Boys and Girls on Film

Rating: 8/10 (17 July 2016)

Really enjoyed watching this I suppose you might call it musical-comedy film set in 1985 Dublin. Mixing in recognisable parts of various earlier films and TV programmes such as, deep breath, "The Commitments", "Gregory's Girl", "Back To The Future" "About A Boy" and even "Grange Hill", you can tell from all of these that we're firmly in teenage angst territory. To be fair, the setting in Dublin doesn't add too much to proceedings as there's no special references to the sectarian divide which was more prevalent then, so that the film could have been set in Anytown, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales. However the Dublin placement is as apt as any in demonstrating the outreach of popular music as well as the romance of young folks yearning for a better life away from home and of course the unique Irish accent and humour.
Of course a certain amount of stereotypical characterisation can't be avoided in a feel-good movie like this, with the supposedly unattainable dream girl, old-fashioned, domineering school headmaster and lunkheaded bully who all interact with the young lead as he arrives new in school wearing an immediately distinctive pair of brown loafers and who makes it even tougher for himself in a way by going all Robert Smith as he forms a New Romantics-inspired band with a bunch of talented schoolmates and dolls himself up in eye-shadow and multi-coloured hair.
Most of the scenes like I said have resonances from the other films mentioned with many of the scenes seeming familiar from elsewhere but there's enough flair, charm and energy to make it pull through and come together. My favourite scenes were the recruitment of the only black boy on the estate, the songwriting sessions with his multi-talented schoolmate and the "Back To The Future" dream sequence but episodic as it is, it's all directed and acted very engagingly so that you accept and acknowledge the sometime clichés as you laugh along with the humour and get behind the teen hero as he chases his dreams of sorting out his dysfunctional family, getting the girl and chasing his musical dream. The ending's good as we're not shown if any of them work out but at least the lad's trying to make a change in his life.
The original songs are all very good, if not always strictly in-period, there's little profanity in the dialogue and the acting and singing of the young cast are very good, making it a fun, enjoyable dare I say it, family entertainment movie.