By Jake Coyle
John Carney, the Irish filmmaker of "Once," "Sing Street" and "Begin Again," makes the movie version of "three chords and the truth."
His films, unabashedly earnest, feel-good movies for cynical times, are lo-fi musicals that tell simple stories, charmingly. There are love interests, usually. But the abiding romance is for music. His films are the sort that would be easier to dismiss as "sentimental" if his central belief — in the redemptive power of music — didn't happen to be kinda true.
The song remains much the same in Carney's latest charmer, "Flora and Son," starring Eve Hewson as a working-class single mother in Dublin who takes up guitar lessons. Flora's initial instinct when she snags a beat-up acoustic guitar out of a dumpster, is to give it to her troubled 14-year-old son, Max (Orรฉn Kinlan) as a day-late birthday present. Max, though, is nonplussed.
"You expect me to turn into Ed (expletive) Sheeran?" he says.
Their life together in a small apartment is far from harmonious. Their interactions are caustic and cruel. Flora, who we first meet dancing at a nightclub and going home with a man she immediately regrets, isn't shy about her disinterest in parenting. Max, meanwhile, is close to getting kicked out of school.
These are problems that, perhaps, take more than a six string to solve. But Carney, who wrote and directed the film, has a way of not hitting the cornball notes too hard and mixing in enough humor to keep the saccharine tones from overpowering.
Pondering her sad state of affairs, Flora finds new resolve. "This can't be my story," she says, like a good protagonist. "This can't be my narrative." She flips around on YouTube looking for guitar lessons before settling on Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a laid-back instructor in Southern California who she's immediately attracted to.
Their lessons over Zoom are intimate; Carney sometimes enhances the effect by transporting Jeff into Flora's kitchen. They talk James Blunt and Joni Mitchell. Jeff shares one of his own songs, which Flora bluntly critiques and then helps shape into a lovely duet. (Carney and Gary Clark penned the film's songs.) Outside of the frame, their interactions have some irony. Hewson, the daughter of Bono, was probably born with chops.
The movie proceeds with the satisfying structure of a song: verse, chorus, bridge. Flora's ex-husband, Ian (Jack Reynor), doubts her commitment. But Flora proves adept at her new hobby, which fosters a newfound connection with her son.
Hewson has been a standout in the TV series "The Knick" and "Bad Sisters," but she can be verifiably called a movie star after "Flora and Son." Her character isn't miles off ones we've seen many times, but Hewson's confident, charismatic leading performance has enough grit and spunk to light up the screen. Nepo baby or not, she's a total star.
"Flora and Son," like a B-side to Carney's earlier hits, may sound a little like a tune you've heard before. But it's sung with enough heart to have even the coldest cynic humming.
"Flora and Son," an Apple TV+ release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for language throughout, sexual references and brief drug use. Running time: 97 minutes. Three stars out of four.
“Overnight Success” Has Been More Than A Decade In The Making For Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson
Meghann Fahy and Eve Hewson, two of the stars of Netflix's whodunit "The Perfect Couple," have news for you if you want to call them breakouts: They've been working in this business for more than a decade.
Fahy made her TV debut in 2009 in an episode of "Gossip Girl." Hewson's first big film role was in 2011's "This Must Be the Place." They do concede, however, that it's recent TV roles โ "The White Lotus" for Fahy and "Bad Sisters" for Hewson โ that have led to new frontiers of opportunity.
Susanne Bier, who directed "The Perfect Couple," says both Fahy and Hewson are "going to be big stars."
"They certainly have proper, profound star quality, Both of them in very different ways," Bier says. "Both are incredibly creative, incredibly smart, and also have a impressive insight as to who they are. You can be a great actor or actress and not necessarily really know who you are yourself. And they do."
Hewson, 33, whose dad is U2 front man Bono, may have grown up in a famous family but she's now in demand in her own right. She will next be seen in a second season of "Bad Sisters, " out in November. She's in Noah Baumbach's next film, alongside Adam Sandler, George Clooney and Riley Keough. She's also been cast in Steven Spielberg's next production and is set to star opposite Murray Bartlett in a racing series for Hulu.
Fahy, 34, is in production on a limited series with Julianne Moore and Milly Alcock called "Sirens," written by Molly Smith Metzler ("Maid") for Netflix. She also has two films in the can with Josh O'Connor ("The Crown," "Challengers") and Brandon Sklenar ("It Ends With Us").
The two actors spoke candidly about this phase of their careers. This interview has been condensed for clarity and... Read More