This is kind of brilliant. John Carney's uncredited cameo in Flora and Son, which he wrote and directed---but of course this isn't a scene from the movie he directed, it's a scene from the music video Flora directed. He relinquishes control of the story for one moment, and his Land Rover gets sat on. So clever! #MetaDoneRight

Just watched Flora and Son (finally) and it was great! John Carney and Gary Clark really know how to make movies and songs that touch your soul.

Flora and Son Review- A Mother and Son Story with Wonderful Musical Twist

John Carney is a director who made the breakout hit Once back in 2007 and it had the breakout hit song that won an Academy Award, Falling Slowly. Ever since he has infused music into his films. Sing Street was another fun film about a battle of the bands and teen angst. His latest film, which premiered at this past January’s Sundance Film Festival, Flora and Son, follows similar trends for the…

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Flora and Son (2023)

Flora and Son (2023) #JohnCarney #EveHewson #JosephGordonLevitt #OrenKinlan #JackReynor #SophieVavasseur Mehr auf:

Jahr: 2023 (September) Genre: Drama Regie: John Carney Hauptrollen: Eve Hewson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Oren Kinlan, Jack Reynor, Sophie Vavasseur, Kelly Thornton … Filmbeschreibung: Flora (Eve Hewson) ist alleinerziehende Mutter und hat große Probleme mit ihrem 14-jährigen Sohn Max (Orén Kinlan). Nachdem der bei einem Diebstahl erwischt wurde und die Polizei ihr rät, dem Jungen eine Aufgabe…

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Flora and Son (2023) Review

Flora and Son - sounds like a name for a barber's or a chippy. "Chippy"....my-my, I'm becoming more British by the day!

Plot: Flora, a single mother who argues with her son Max in an attempt to find him a hobby, retrieves a guitar from a dumpster and discovers that one person's rubble can be a family's salvation.

John Carney's musicals aren't really musicals. Having brought us such treats as Sing Street and Begin Again, all his projects feature original songs, however, they are never flashy staged sequences, but instead very simplistic and calming moments. Carney uses music as a connective tissue between characters who otherwise struggle to click. So with his new Apple TV+ indie feature Flora and Son he sets the events in Dublin, Ireland, and its another feel-good heartwarming experience,. The best parts are the musical moments, with the song lyrics and acoustic guitar sounding delightful, however despite good intentions and solid moments, the film itself fails to fully hit the mark.

The thing with most John Carney movies is that they all feature flawed characters, with individuals going through some serious issues such as divorce or loss or being outcasted, however, that never stops these characters from being likable people whom we as the audience can root for and have that interest in seeing them get their happy ending. With Flora and Son, however, even though the story is structured in that same pattern, the characters are all really unlikeable and at times horrible. Flora (played by Ewe Hewson) is a terrible mother who rarely gives her son the time of day. She steals, is mean to everyone and overall just enjoys living her miserable life by feeling sorry for herself. We are supposed to wish good things for her character, but by acting so self-centered and unpleasant throughout most of the movie honestly made me not care for her. Only in the last 20 minutes, she makes the sudden decision to develop a consciousness, however, even then there isn't really any build-up in her character arc to get her to that stage. She just suddenly decides "Okay, I'm going to be nice now". The son too, though you do feel sorry that he's not got a solid parent figure, also is a bit of a prick, excuse my French. Weirdly it's the ex-boyfriend who we're supposed to hate, who actually comes off as the more reasonable one at times. Naturally, it doesn't help that he's played by Jack Reynor who is such a lovely man, so no matter how dislikable he tries to act I just see him as the sweet Irish-talking brother Brendan from Sing Street. In reality, the only character that seems to have a solid moral code and is actually a nice person is Flora's online guitar teacher (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), but again, that connects to the main musical moments of the film, which again are its stronghold.

The cinematography is fairly bland, with the only noteworthy moments being when Flora helps her son film a music video, which results in a very amusing piece. The narrative itself is standard cheesiness which is to be expected in a romantic comedy drama such as this, but the storyline is pretty basic and more tame than usual compared to Carney's previous works. Again, within the last 20 minutes, it does come all together nicely even if the ending itself is a tad anti-climactic, but overall it is a well-intentioned little indie flick, with a great acoustic soundtrack, and enough heartwarming moments to make it worth a Saturday night watch with your partner.

Overall score: 6/10

Movie Review: Flora and Son

Irish filmmaker John Carney has very quietly become one of the best directors of the now. The Irish director made a name for himself internationally with the charming little indie film Once about a busker and an immigrant making music (and so much more) together. His later film Begin Again was sort of like the Hollywood remake of Once, but I really liked how it was a love letter to NYC and showed someone getting back on their feet and finding something that motivates them. I included it in my Best Movies of 2014 list. His last feature film Sing Street was my #1 Movie of 2016. That coming-of-age film set in 1985 Dublin, was a perfect film start-to-finish: A love letter to music, music videos, and first love that remains optimistic despite the harsh realities. After working on the TV series Modern Love, Carney is back with the Sundance hit Flora and Son, which is opening theatrically and on Apple TV+ today.

movie poster

Eve Hewson plays Flora, a rough-around-the-edges single mother in Dublin, who lives in her small apartment with her teenage delinquent son Max (Oren Kinlan). She is advised to find Max a hobby to keep him from petty theft. When she finds an acoustic guitar in the dump, she gets it fixed. He resists the guitar, but she decides to take an online guitar class from Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a would-be rock star now teaching guitar from his home in California. I'm not going to say much more, but if you've seen any of Carney's work, it's no spoiler to say that the theme of music being something that can bring people together is very present here.

Hewson and Kinlan are Flora and Son

This is a movie you try to resist and say "it's sappy", etc, but at a certain point, you just can't resist its charm. The main reason why is because of Eve Hewson. She is a revelation! I had only seen her in small supporting roles in movies like This Must Be the Place and Bridge of Spies, but boy does she run with this role and make it her own. I am going to address the elephant in the room in that she is the older sister of Elijah Hewson, the lead singer of Inhaler (check out their excellent album Cuts and Bruises that I got to review earlier this year) and she is the daughter of the singer for the biggest Irish rock band on the planet (do I really have to say?!?). But this is far from stunt casting - winking at the audience that the daughter of one of the greatest songwriters of the now is playing a woman trying to learn to write a song - but it's not! Her performance all in her eyes - that longing, hoping, and hiding it behind her potty mouth (quite a few laughs I might add). This is a serious star-making performance for her. Joseph Gordon-Levitt brings his trademark charm to what could've been a one-note character. But equal praise is on Carney himself. Next to Cameron Crowe, no other director working today LOVES music like he does. You can feel it in every scene and every shot. His love of music isn't just in the background, it's in the foreground. Just try not to get choked up as Flora watches an old clip of Joni Mitchell (even if you're not a fan). But like his other movies where music is the connection that brings people together, it truly works in magical ways here and has a lot to say about how people connect in the age of zoom and skype.

For info on Flora and Son

4.5 out of 5 stars