John Carney (Begin Again) once again tries to reheat a Once soufflé and instead serves up a flat, cheerily antiseptic period musical. Ferdia Walsh-Peelo (this year’s answer to Freddie Highmore) makes his movie debut as Cosmo, a well-scrubbed Dubliner who starts a band to escape the daily rigors of Mom and Dad. It’s the ’80s, when no musical group was complete without a video, and no video fully realized without a pretty girl to front it. Enter Raphina (Lucy Boynton, doubling for the cost-prohibitive Lana Del Rey), the stereotypical (and equally spotless) dropout, and the unlit cigarette-dangling beauty of Cosmo’s dreams. Lively background work from Cosmo’s bandmates (Mark McKenna and Ben Carolan) and brother (Jack Reynor) aren’t enough to compensate for the treacly romance that takes centerstage. There’s a sweet, safe, familiar smell to it — nothing comes of the storming priest complimenting the boy on his beauty, and a vicious skinhead is reduced to cuddly comic relief — that can’t be masked. (2016) — Scott Marks
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