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Flora and Son

Flora and Son

2023

John Carney

Eve Hewson, Jack Reynor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Orén Kinlan ...

6.4

920

Drama. Comedy Flora is a single mom who is at war with her son, Max. Trying to find a hobby for Max, she rescues a guitar from a dumpster and finds that one person's trash can be a family's salvation.

Premiere: Sundance 2023

	Media	Author	Review
		Caryn James The Hollywood Reporter	"Since Carney’s films now have a distinct signature, 'Flora and Son' won’t land with the same sense of originality that Once did. But this engaging film takes full advantage of its stylistic DNA"
		Kate Erbland IndieWire	"John Carney delivers another cozy, crowd-pleasing Irish musical"
		Donald Clarke Irish Times	"The leads confidently bring home a smallish film with a sizeable heart (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Nicholas Barber The Wrap	"A rollicking ode to working-class defiance. But there is a fine line between leaving some stories tantalizingly open-ended and stumbling through all of them in a hurry. By the time it gets to the final scene, it has jumped the wrong way over that line"
		Ben Pearson SlashFilm	"Carney has this genre on lock. No other working filmmaker has consistently captured what he's able to with his movies, zeroing in on the way music can bridge emotional distances (...) Rating: ★★★★★★★★ (out of 10)"
		Jordan Raup The Film Stage	"With a lovingly crude sense of humor and finding the perfect star in Hewson to radiate sincere liveliness every moment she’s onscreen, Carney has crafted a winning tale of motherhood and music"
		Damon Wise Deadline	"As a modest comedy, however, it has charm and appeal, but just not enough substance to blow up at the box office"
		Wendy Ide Screendaily	"Eve Hewson shines as a single mother finding a new passion for music in John Carney’s latest comedy"
		Benjamin Lee The Guardian	"Once writer-director John Carney has made another winning, if flawed, film about music and love with a standout lead turn from Eve Hewson (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Steven Nguyen Scaife Slant	"[It] is far more invested in making its characters likable and cute rather than risking audience sympathies (...) Rating: ★½ (out of 4)"
		Richard Lawson Vanity Fair	"'Flora and Son' played more charming than cloying to me. It's a nice movie about people who are mostly nice -deep down, anyway"
		John Serba Decider	"A delightfully light musical love story"
		Ann Hornaday The Washington Post	"[It] is the scruffy, song-filled fairy tale we need right now (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Jason Bailey The Playlist	"It is a tiny lil’ wisp of a movie with nothing particularly new to say or an especially fresh way to say it. But damned if it doesn’t sock you right in the ticker anyway"
		Owen Gleiberman Variety	"'Flora and Son' is small of scale, unabashed in its pop sincerity, and irresistible (...) [It] has a quality that has always brought life to musicals, but that has now gone out of style. You might call it innocence"
		Monica Castillo rogerebert.com	"For a movie so driven by music, it’s unfortunate that its final number is somewhat of a mess, its lyrics weaker than the performances that led up to it (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"
		Peter Travers ABC News	"Blending the hilarious and heartfelt, the tough and the tender, John Carney's sweerheart of an Irish musical is a treasure you'll want to hold close"
		Ross Bonaime Collider	"[It] is a beautiful story about the bonds that can grow from music"
		Edward Porter The Sunday Times	"The combination of plotlines is like two songs being mashed together without gaining anything. Still, Hewson puts it across well. Her performance is the film's catchiest hook"
		Mae Abdulbaki Screen Rant	"Delightful and heartwarming (...) Audiences won't be able to resist how attached they become to the characters, and one can't help but leave this viewing experience with anything but a beaming smile (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"
		Chris Bumbray JoBlo	"Nobody makes movies like [Carney] does, and each of his films feel like a gift. 'Flora and Son' is no exception"
		Kyle Smith The Wall Street Journal	"Heart and soul suffuse every scene of this modest, perfect picture"
		James Dyer Empire	"A love story, but not in the way you think. Carney's latest ballad to the musical arts stays in tune, with a stand-out central performance from Hewson (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"

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