Movie Review Flora and Son

Flora and Son (2023) 

Directed by John Carney 

Written by John Carney 

Starring Eve Hewson, Joseph Gordon Levitt 

Release Date September 22nd, 2023 

Published September 18th, 2023 

Writer-Director John Carney has the keys to my heart. I know what you are thinking, that's weird, right? But it's true. Ever since his extraordinary film Once, and each movie subsequent to that, I have never felt as much emotional kinship to a filmmaker. I trust John Carney. I am vulnerable to his work in a way that I am not with any other filmmaker. His work speaks to me in a very emotional way, as if we know each other and he specifically knows how to move me. I'm vulnerable to him because I always fall completely in love with his characters. That's a scary thing, what if he takes them in a direction I don't like? What if he decided to kill one of them? It's his story after all. 

I trust him. I trust that when John Carney gives me movie characters to fall in love with, hope for, root for, and cry for, I trust that he's taking care with that. I trust that he's not going to abuse the privilege of having my heart open to his work. I believe with my entire being that I can lose myself in John Carney's romantic universe and that he will take care to make sure I'm okay, that I feel comfortable, at home. And then he tells the story. He unfolds his story via his characters with remarkable care and precise emotion. He crafts romantic fantasy that feels like real life but slightly elevated. He can break my heart but when he does it, he does with good purpose, not to cause harm. 

Flora and Son is the latest John Carney movie to speak directly to my heart. Flora (Eve Hewson) is a loving and dedicated single mother who also likes to party, drink too much wine, and be a little inappropriate. She may sound like a type, but in the hands of Eve Hewson and John Carney, the character becomes a fully rounded human being, flawed and beautiful, angry and loving, a dichotomy of conflicting emotions that come out not always as they are intended to. It's a rich tapestry of a character and empathetic one for sure. 

Read my full length reviews at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Once

Once (2007) 

Directed by John Carney 

Written by John Carney 

Starring Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova 

Release Date May 22nd 2007 

Published May 25th, 2007 

There is a moment in the movie Once so touching and so simple it aches with true beauty. The main characters, a street musician and an immigrant girl, having bonded over his music, sit in a piano shop and he teaches her a song he is working on. She is a surprisingly good piano player who learns the song quickly and soon they are in a magical duet that lilts and twists with deep meaning. It's one of a dozen or so stunningly small moments of beauty, insight and joy in director John Carney's magnificent, Once. 

Once, from writer-director John Carney is a revelation. A musical so subtle that you may not realize it's a musical. The characters are musicians who fall in love with their very own soundtrack as the girl pushes the boy to get it together and record his music. As they move from strangers to friends to two people clearly meant for one another the soundtrack acts, not so much as a Greek chorus but as a catalyst for their feelings. His songs are heartbreaking paeans to a lost love. Her contributions are the cries of a woman confused about love, she is married and has a child with a man she isn't sure she loves anymore.

As they perform together their mutual heartache bonds them further. My description however, does not do justice to the simple, eloquent beauty of Once. The subtlety and elegance of this combination of romance and music makes the heart leap and your breath catch. The music comes from the film's star Glen Hansard, lead singer of the band The Frames, and Marketa Irglova is the girl, a fellow musician from the Czech Republic.

John Carney created Once as a romance with well known stars in the lead. It began life as a studio project and evolved from there. At one point 28 Days Later star Cillian Murphy was seen as the lead with Hansard on board to write the music. When Murphy fell out, Carney pushed for and got his old friend Hansard the job as his singer, composer, and lead actor. Soon after, the two found Irglova and the film was set.

Using a DV camera Carney creates a low budget documentary feel for Once that adds to the real chemistry of the two leads. We are kept at such unique angles and distances that at once we are voyeurs on this relationship and also treated as old friends invited to hang out as they create wonderful music together. It is the astonishing simplicity of it all that makes Once so ingenious as not just a showcase for great music, but a great movie.

The best soundtrack of 2007 combines with a pair of lead actors with exquisite chemistry to make a movie of near perfection. I cannot say enough good things about Once.