We love a big razzle-dazzle movie musical — your "Chicago," your "Wicked," your "Greatest Showman" and whatnot. But sometimes we're in the mood for a quieter, more intimate number, the kind of nontraditional big-screen musical where characters write, play and sing songs that are organically woven into the drama of the film, rather than spontaneously burst out in polished vocals and choreographed dances.
Director John Carney is a master of that kind of musical-dramedy. The Irish filmmaker is behind such genre favorites as 2007's "Once" (the Oscar-winning two-hander between Markéta Irglová and the late Glen Hansard) and 2013's "Begin Again" (a New York-set musical romance between Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo).
