TIFF 2023: Flora and Son Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Flora and Son is the newest film from John Carney following Sing Street, a film widely-considered one of the best films of the 2010’s. Carney has a certain niche when it comes to his films, gravitating towards outsiders who find their voice through music. His latest is no different. The story follows Flora (Hewson), a single mom struggling to make ends meet while trying to raise her rebellious teenage son Max (Kinlan). Causing nothing but trouble, she tries to buy him a guitar for him to find an artistic outlet. However, after Max rejects the guitar, Flora decides to take the path to find her passion and improve herself instead. From there, as she started to take the guitar seriously, her life began to change and truly began to find herself once she met a guitar teacher named Jeff (Gordon-Levitt) for whom she started to develop feelings for. As she pursued her dreams, Flora’s new attitude seemed to reflect positively on Max who looked to pursue his passion and it was perhaps that connection that brought them closer together.

If anything, Flora and Son is a cute film albeit one that doesn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel or do anything new with its premise. That being said, for those who are not into the twee and sunshiny Sundance subgenre, this will not likely be for them. Despite its familiar aspects, it still handles them incredibly well. Fans of sweet films about the connections music can make, will absolutely enjoy this one. Its terrific songs are sure to stick in heads long after the credits roll. Meanwhile, its script feels incredibly superficial at times but also features plenty of wit and genuine laugh out loud moments. Though its performances from Hewson, Gordon-Levitt, and Kinlan are charming, the film seemingly aspires to be nothing more than just cute and unchallenging for better or worse.

Easily the most R-rated John Carney film to date, it is not shy about profanity and a few graphic sexual references. However, that path may turn off some audiences while the soft way it handles its intense subject matter could even more so. Effectively depicting an evolving dysfunctional family dynamic, the tone still feels like something more akin to a Hallmark movie. Though the film may be a little off tonally at times, a large portion of audiences will find themselves really loving this one.

still courtesy of Apple TV+

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Brett Schutt

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