Our take
From the director of Once and Sing Street comes Dublin-set Flora and Son, part love letter to music, part not-so-slick advertisement for Apple’s GarageBand. Eve Hewson plays the titular single mother, whose wayward 14-year-old son Max (Orén Kinlan) is one more slip-up away from being sent to youth detention. In an attempt to find an outlet for his unruly teenage energy, she salvages a beat-up guitar, but after he rejects it, there’s nothing to do but give it a go herself — cue her belated moment of self-discovery.
Max’s anonymity in the title makes sense, then, because this is much more Flora’s story. However, while Hewson pours energy into the role, she can’t quite transcend the script’s limits: Flora’s initial unlikeability (a little too emphatic), and the awkward attempts to roughen up a feel-good story with unconvincingly gritty elements. The film seems aware of audience expectations for a Carney joint, too, so it skips convincing dynamics and fleshed-out supporting characters in its rush to deliver musical setpieces (which never quite reach the catchy heights of Sing Street’s earworms, unfortunately). Still, there’s real charm — and some compelling ideas about the magic of music — in here, especially once the film gets past its shaky first third and unabashedly embraces its feel-good heart.
What it won
Nat. Board of Review
1 win
The story
Single mom Flora is at a loss about what to do with her rebellious teenage son, Max. Her efforts to keep him out of trouble lead to a beat-up acoustic guitar, a washed-up LA musician, and harmony for this frayed Dublin family.
Elsewhere
"A cozy Irish musical about the ways in which music can bond people together, the joy of creation, and the pleasure of someone unpacking their soul, all with that lovely Irish lilt."
— Kate Erbland
"Hewson does an impeccable job as Flora, the movie's heart and soul."
— Monica Castillo
A single mother who feels like her life is going nowhere embarks on an overdue journey of self-discovery alongside her troubled teenage son.
An romantic subplot comes courtesy of Flora’s online guitar teacher, the LA-based Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) — and, while their relationship certainly isn’t the most well-developed in the film, their sparse moments of bonding do allow for some passionate reflections on music’s liberating potential. What’s more, though their connection doesn’t feel quite so convincing (despite the film’s dream-like attempts to physically bridge the couple’s distance), their scenes together do feature some piercing insight into the painful vulnerability required by sharing your creativity. If the film feels blatantly manufactured in places, these unexpected moments of truth help cut through the artifice and deliver something genuinely compelling.
Flora and Son is a crowd-pleaser — unless the crowd includes James Blunt, who catches multiple strays from Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character here.
The details
Streaming arrival
Who picked it
Farah Cheded is a UK-based curator at A Good Movie to Watch and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved freelance critic whose work has been published at outlets including The Playlist, Paste Magazine, and Film School Rejects. She lives in fear of the day she runs out of 'Columbo' episodes to watch.
