Flora and Son
Flora and Son
Single mom Flora is at a loss about what to do with her rebellious teenage son, Max. Her efforts to keep him out of trouble lead to a beat-up acoustic guitar, a washed-up LA musician, and harmony for this frayed Dublin family.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 2, 2025
I absolutely adore John Carney’s Sing Street and Once. In a lot of ways, his newest film Flora and Son feels exactly like a mashup of those two movies. You get a couple collaborating on songs together in their new “relationship,” and you have a school-aged boy trying to win over his crush with his music. While the story is charming and Eve Hewson is delightful as Flora, it was lacked a the musical hook that “Falling Slowly” or “Drive it Like You Stole It” provided for those aforementioned films. There was no tune or melody that transformed into an ear worm as soon as credits rolled. The only song that was stuck in my head afterwards was Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now. (I think that’s the second time in recent memory that an Apple release has gotten that song stuck in my head.) Flora sheds a tear while watching Joni perform the song on tv, and it’s the only time when a song performance in the film elicits an emotional reaction, even though there were many opportunities. And while I think the arc between Flora and her son, Max comes to resolution at the end, it didn’t feel like much else was. (Flora’s relationship with Jack (Joseph Gordon Levitt, Max’s crush, etc). I still quite enjoyed it. My Irish side, loves the hearing the Irish accents. And I will still sign up for every future John Carney film.