'Sing Street' a musical fantasy of infectious joy, 1980s nostalgia

If Oscar-winning musician John Carney ever contemporized those old MGM "let's put on a show" musicals starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney ...

Oh, wait. He just did.

It's titled "Sing Street," a modest, playful, beguiling coming-of-age musical set in the 1980s Ireland of Carney's formative youth.

After his bare-bones "Once" and more lushly orchestrated "Begin Again," Carney juxtaposes the romantic idealism of youth with the unifying power of music to create this whimsical ode to old-fashioned teen wish fulfillment.

Young actor Ferdia Walsh-Peelo plays the main character, Conor, a fresh-faced 14-year-old whose family finances become so bad that he must transfer from his expensive Jesuit school to the blue-collar Christian Brothers school over on Synge Street in Dublin.

In 1985, MTV rock music videos are all the rage. So when Conor spots an alluring older girl, Raphina (Lucy Boynton), emanating a Betty Rizzo vibe from across the street, he offers her a role in a music video he says he's making with his newfound friend Darren (Ben Carolan).

She accepts.

"We need to form a band!" Conor says to Darren. The clock's ticking.

Conor and Darren pull together a ragtag group of musicians and dash off a maiden effort, "The Riddle of the Model," just catchy and fun enough to capture Raphina's attention. She wants to be a model.

"It's all about the girl, isn't it?" says Brendan (Jack Reynor), Conor's older stoner brother who vicariously latches on to Conor's band to mitigate his own failed guitarist dreams.

Carney's screenplay takes a few surprising turns while still adhering to genre conventions. He clearly believes in the power of music to lift spirits, motivate people and smooth life's bumpy patches.

In the movie's signature scene, Conor's imagination turns a clunky, disappointing school rehearsal into a full-fledged Fellini-esque extravaganza, with his bitterly divorcing parents, a sadistic priest, a local bully, Raphina and all his friends caught up in a musical fantasy of infectious joy and 1980s nostalgia.

"Sing Street" isn't the way it was. Just the way it should have been.