Today we have another review from preternaturally prolific staff writer Robert Levin of a film ‘crazypadslads’ on IMDb calls “the best Irish film ever.”

Once

Though writer-director John Carney’s “Once” has been appropriately billed as a musical, it contains none of the genre’s usually excessive flourishes, replacing the elaborate sets, singing masses and rousing score with a simple, poignant story set to two acoustic guitars. It concerns the relationship between Guy (Glen Hansard) and Girl (Markéta Irglová), two musicians struggling to get by in modern Dublin. The former sings on the street and supplements his income by working in a vacuum repair shop; the latter takes care of her daughter without the help of an absent husband. By keeping the focus on his sad-eyed, wonderfully expressive stars (both real life musicians), emphasizing the revealing beauty of their music and utterly refusing to depart from the real world, everyday milieu Carney achieves a magical resonance impossible for most any big, epic production number.

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Arts, Film