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It’s easy enough to describe John Carney’s films about how music can change a person’s life for the better, but I think there’s something broader that he’s showing behind all that. These are films about how creativity unites people, but music just happens to be the field he likes to focus on. And when you’re watching Once, Begin Again, or Sing Street, it’s easy enough to find something to attach to in how these people are brought together by music. Flora and Son is another film adding to that body of work for the Irish filmmaker. And par for the course, you’re getting another great soundtrack to come along the ride for a lovely film too.

Flora (Eve Hewson) is a single mother living in Dublin with her son Max (Orén Kinlan). Flora loves partying and behaving recklessly, but she’s still a devoted mother above all – despite how frequently they quarrel, and Max’s tendencies to get in trouble. In an attempt to bring the two of them much closer to one another, Flora rescues and old guitar and hopes to give it to Max – who’s more interested in creating music through his computer. She ends up taking online guitar lessons with Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), with whom she falls in love with despite him being based in Los Angeles. And thus begins another journey for people to find themselves connecting with one another through music.

When talking about a John Carney film, I think it’s very inevitable that the soundtrack is going to be the first thing most will want to talk about. Because of course, the music is very good. I think that where Flora and Son finds itself within a space that’s unique from many other John Carney movies can perhaps be best stated from how it is built almost entirely around how people find themselves connecting with one another through something they love dearly. And for the most part, it’s very lovely – whether we see it in moments between Flora and her son, but also in the online relationship that Flora develops with Jeff over their Zoom sessions together (although, as most of my peers have noted, I’m surprised to see that Zoom latency never seems to be a problem for the two).

It also helps that Eve Hewson is a delight to watch in her title role – which makes the whole ride much more fun to watch. Being the heart and soul of Flora and Son, it’s the fact that she never loses the energy she carries while she’s either being openly vulgar on camera or trying her best to be a dedicated mother to her troubled son. Kinlan is also a lot of fun to watch as someone trying to find his own voice through music, even with the limited resources he has – but he taps into the angst of trying to fit in around other people whose tastes in music are already defined for them. But above all, I think it’s great to see how Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt can play off one another despite the two of them never truly being in the same space. Carney even creates a unity through the music to convey what it feels like for the two of them, and the end result is very lovely.

Even though I haven’t fully loved any of John Carney’s films, I think he’s doing wonders with showing how people can be brought together through music. Many of the beats here are the same as he’s always done his career. Everyone gets together through music, there’s a part of me wondering if he’ll ever make something that manages to break free of these trappings from him. Yet I think he’s still able to do all of this well enough to the point that I can’t help but just sit along for the ride. And when all the music just happens to be as good as it is, I can’t help but ask myself, “who cares?”

Watch the trailer here.

All images via Apple TV+.

Directed by John Carney
Screenplay by John Carney
Produced by Anthony Bregman, John Carney, Peter Cron, Rebecca O’Flanagan, Robert Walpole
Starring Eve Hewson, Jack Reynor, Orén Kinlan, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Release Date: September 22, 2023
Running Time: 93 minutes