John Carney, the Irish filmmaker of “Once,” “Sing Street” and “Begin Again,” makes the movie version of “three chords and the truth.”
His films, unabashedly earnest, feel-good movies for cynical times, are lo-fi musicals that tell simple stories, charmingly. There are love interests, usually. But the abiding romance is for music. His films are the sort that would be easier to dismiss as “sentimental” if his central belief — in the redemptive power of music — didn't happen to be kinda true.
