The Healing Power of Music
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the same name)
But first, here's a technology update of competition between me and one of my cats, 2-year-old Layla (photo above), who once again found her way through the intended-barrier I set up around my TV screen and chewed through the thin power wire of my Roku device, shutting down my access to streaming. (Yes, I know it’s a smart TV that could also stream, but for whatever reasons when I tried to do that with Disney+ some time ago [can’t remember why] it took 2 hours on the phone with an LG helper so I’m not inclined to go that route again [although maybe this new OLED set works better with that task, though I haven’t chosen to spend even more time finding out].) So, it was off to Target to buy another Roku, get all of my various streaming platforms activated on it, cover any thin wire behind the TV completely with aluminum foil, put a blanket and some books over all the wiring, and rebuild my stacks of access-denial (the GOP would probably like to hire me for the Border Patrol, but I’d decline [actually, back in spring 1970 as I was approaching undergrad graduation at the U. of Texas at Austin, not sure what I’d do next with my life, I took the Civil Service exam to see where that might lead, but after getting offers for the Border Patrol in Texas and the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms {Explosives not part of their name back then} Division of the IRS in Louisiana I gave up on government work, started Graduate School in Radio/TV/ Film, eventually leading me to this blog]), in hopes that this time I’d be able to keep her away from temptation (second time for a sound bar, third time for a Roku streamer)—a stuffed dog also plays a role, by keeping Layla out of the DVD cabinet.
Yet, as I reported in my September 14, 2023 posting I’m still the worst TV-center-destructor in my condo as about a month ago I knocked over the previous LG set rendering it a useless-mess, so my credit-card-replacement-tally’s still considerably higher than Layla’s. One last item here, in this current photo you see on the screen behind us the menu for my DVD of Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969 [only Oscar Best Picture with the deadly X-rating back when it was released, now re-rated as an R]), my last rental (and only keepsake) from my 555 discs from Netflix since 2009 (although I’ll continue with them into the future for streaming). Finally, then, on to this week’s review, just the one movie because a lot of my usual watching/writing/posting time was occupied with the damn Roku situation plus taking Tuesday off to help my wonderful wife, Nina Kindblad, celebrate her birthday (a much more joyful event than all that wire-wrapping, believe me—and my aching knees).
Flora and Son (John Carney) rated R 97 min.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: We’re in Dublin, Ireland where early-30s Flora (Eve Hewson), back when she was 17, fell in love with musician Ian (Jack Reynor), married him, had a baby, Max (Orén Kinlan as her 14-year-old-son), later divorced Ian, now hangs out with good friend/single-mom Aishling (Amy Huberman), where we first see the 2 of them hitting the clubs with Flora bringing home her catch of the night who leaves quickly the next morning when he learns she shares a home with her teenager. Not that the kid would have been much of a nuisance anyway as Max and Flora are constantly butting heads, with her too distracted by various situations to have given him the time/attention he feels he needs, him seemingly not open to any attempts she offers to try to make it up to him: for example, she (cheaply) buys him a used guitar in a music store for a birthday present, but he rejects even trying to learn to play it because he’s not into acoustic music (prefers edgy-electronic-stuff), plus she’s a day late with the attempted present. So, life goes on for Flora as she often babysits for Aishling’s young daughter (as well as stealing a bit of cash from her chum’s purse), squabbles occasionally with Ian (Max also spends time with him, though lives with Flora) while making nasty comments about his new girlfriend, Juanita (Sophie Vavasseur), constantly clashes with Max. Frustrated with her lack of direction, Flora decides to learn to play guitar herself so she visits several Internet sites, decides to try with Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who lives in Topanga Canyon (near L.A.) where he seems to enjoy a comfortable life, although with no fame as a well-known-musician.
In their initial connection Jeff tries to show her how the presentation of a song can be much more effective than the existence of actual chords and lyrics might indicate; however, she (after having what seems to be her daily dose of wine by early afternoon) asks him to play it again with his shirt off so he closes the connection. Next day she contacts him again, apologizes, accepts a real lesson (even though he dismisses her musical tastes; she loves James Blunt’s "You're Beautiful" which he dismisses as “empty” [Carney's opinion put into his script]), dedicates herself to actually learning the instrument, but also has a lot of personal chatter with Jeff, both of them beginning a show of interest in the other, even as she boldly suggests a cluster of improvements to one of his own songs.
Max’s music doesn’t do much for her, though, until she realizes how he’s composing using computer tools, so she works with him to help finalize a song (“Dublin 07”) he’s hoping will get him some recognition from Samantha (Alex Deegan), a quite-sure-of-her-value-girl he’s infatuated with (Mom even helps him make a boxing-themed-video to go with it, yet Samantha’s not all that impressed). But Flora has another incentive to connect better with her son because he’s been arrested several times for theft with one more incident destined to put him away for awhile. Just as things seem to be going in the right direction for Flora as she’s making plans to fly to L.A. to see Jeff but can’t find anyone to watch over Max (both Ian and Aishling decline), this all becomes moot when Max tries to steal a synthesizer, gets caught, is set for 2 months in a juvenile-rehab-center so Flora’s got to stay home but does get the judge to reduce the sentence to 1 month, allow Max to bring in a keyboard so he can keep working on his music. ⇒When he’s released he finds himself part of Flora’s determined-plan to bring elements of her life together as she arranges for herself, Max, Ian (on bass), and Internet accompaniment from Jeff and a drummer to compete in a local talent show; the audience is quite receptive to her song, with it clear who the foundation of this group is for the night (and beyond?) as she names them Flora and Son (we’ll get back to her well-received-song soon).⇐
So What? When I started noticing mentions of this movie I mistakenly remembered it as Fiona and Son until I actually watched and found it’s Flora … instead (Fiona's a likely Irish name, you must admit), but I’m a bit justified as “flora” comes from the Latin “flos” for “flower” (and the celebrated Roman goddess Flora), apparently is used in Scotland and Ireland as an Anglicized version of the similar name Fionnuala or Finola so at least I was almost right. Or, maybe better than almost because (when replaying the movie while checking my new Roku connection was working properly [while painstakingly-covering every inch of the wires with un-tasty-foil, putting even more blockade elements around and behind the TV screen, making a plan to buy cat-repellant-spray]), I noted a minor character also mistakenly called her Fiona—she corrected him—so I now feel more justified. (For the record, the only Floras I’ve "met" are one of the good fairies in Disney’s animated version of Sleeping Beauty [Clyde Geronimi, Wolfgang Reitherman, Eric Larson, Les Clark; 1959] and one of my maternal grandmother’s sisters, a woman who I’d occasionally visit in her Ft. Worth, TX home.)
A more viable connection to this movie for me, though, is Carney’s earlier film, Once (2007 [won the Oscar for Best Original Song, "Fallling Slowly"])—also about musicians in Dublin but with an unexpected ending given the romance cues throughout the story. All in all, I found Once to be a more intricate experience than Flora and Son (would probably have given it at least 4 stars had this blog existed then—can’t say for sure because it’s been too long since I’ve seen it—which just verifies for me Carney has a great knack for storytelling of this type, although I don’t know what else he may be capable of because I’ve seen none of his other work, but he’s been frequently lauded by others). Flora …’s ultimately an uplifting movie—after varying episodes of tension for all of the major characters at some point—but, despite how the CCAL's improved upon my rating (more on that in this review's next section), I still find the story enjoyable-enough but easily-predictable in its upbeat development, leaving it (to borrow a paraphrase from the end of Pink Floyd’s "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" [on The Wall album, 1979]) more as “pudding” than “meat”; a tasty pudding, to be sure, but a bit sugary-sweet as it all falls into place, although I certainly enjoyed the acting talents of Hewson and Kinlan, do appreciate how all of the musicians come together in the finale rather than building more walls around themselves, especially Flora with Hewson, daughter of Irish superstar Bono (U2), demonstrating very effectively her performance heritage as manifested in her own talent.
I also appreciated how Carney has some scenes (Flora’s flat, the local park) with Hewson and Gordon-Levitt sharing actual space in the same frame, rather than him just appearing on a laptop screen, in order to visualize their growing connection despite the truly-huge-physical-distance between them. What will become of this group as their lives continue to flow along is for us to speculate: Will Mom and son continue to better connect through music or some other means? Will Flora and Ian be able to ease up on the squabbles based on their unhappily-shared-past? Will Flora even get to L.A. (or will Jeff ever come to Dublin, an option not explored in the movie) to see what possibilities might await for her there (or for him in Ireland)? Will Max ever grow past his inclinations toward thievery (he’d better or the next sentence would surely be more than a mere month)? Carney doesn’t seem to do sequels, so you might as well make up your own narratives about these characters, with hopes they’ve given you enough reasons to be mulling over their rewarding futures.
Bottom Line Final Comments: Flora and Son was given a limited theatrical release (so limited it doesn’t appear on the Box-Office Mojo charts) on September 22, 2023, then was added to Apple TV+ streaming on September 29, 2023 (a standard ploy from studios mostly pushing a streaming option to get an official run in a few theaters for later awards considerations) so if you’re interested in it you either need to be a subscriber to that platform or be willing to shell out $6.99 for at least 1 month (a good deal as the one small fee gets you access to everything in their vault for those 30/31 days). The CCAL will easily tell you to do so with 93% positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes (no fluke as that result’s based on 122 responses), while the normally-more-reserved Metacritic average score comes out as 76% (based on 31 reviews, but they generally have far fewer inclusions than RT). If you need further encouragement beyond my support (yes, I have some reservations, although I truly like the movie quite a bit) you might turn to Amy Nicholson of The New York Times who says: “It’s a testament to Hewson’s extraordinary charisma that her character can openly wish Max would get kidnapped and we root for her anyway. […] Not everyone can be a professional artist — but we can all welcome art into our lives.” Still, you might prefer to just skip this movie and need some helpful rationale to support your decision; in that case, Steven Scalfe of Slant will help you out: “Flora is eventually forced to choose where to direct her full attention, but not even this brief sliver of intrigue is safe from Carney’s soft approach, as our main character’s crisis of conscience is quickly resolved just in time for a feel-good closing performance in a bar. Throughout Flora and Son, there’s a sense that its two plotlines might have worked in isolation, but when mashed together like this, they drown each other out like two singers out of sync.” No quarter!
So, take your pick of the kind of/lack of encouragement you’d prefer where Flora and Son is concerned, but at least there’s plenty of music involved if that would be a healthy-enticement to watch it. My choice of a tune for my normal-ending-trope of a Musical Metaphor is “High Life” (the successful final performance from the soundtrack,* written by Carney and Gary Clark, performed by Hewson and Kinlan) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiwsTLSDWZw&list=PLLv3qeuV3Y Dohf1cgdvwpi3WsA0P32Lrg&index=16 (although some of the words are kinda raunchy so, if you prefer, here’s a more-sanitized-version), where the lyrics are actually mother and son admitting in public their previous problems with each other but determined to find something better: “And I’m not living in your life / And you’re not living in mine / We’ve been getting wrong forever / We’ll get it right this time / And live in the High Life.” Yet, there’s a turning point in the plot where Flora starts getting serious about making music when she listens to an old video (1970) of a live performance of Joni Mitchell singing "Both Sides Now" (from her 1969 Clouds album, though in the last verse here she says “win and lose” rather than “up and down” as on the recording) which could easily speak to the situation of this movie’s major characters: “I’ve looked at life from both sides now / From win and lose and still somehow / It’s life’s illusions I recall / I really don’t know life at all.” All of them are realizing how they’ve been living unhealthy-illusions, ultimately getting so tired of it, wanting something better.
*If you really want to immerse yourself in the soundtrack of Flora and Son you can go here for all 18 cuts from Carney and Clark’s musical endeavors, with the vocals done by the various cast members.
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
Some options for your consideration: (1) What's new on Netflix in October 2023; (2) What's new on Amazon Prime Video in October 2023; (3) What's new on Max in October 2023; (4) What's new on Hulu in October 2023; as well as (5) IMDb editors' picks for Disney+ in October 2023.
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