Apple TV Plus’ best new movie is about rocking out with your mom

polygon.com:

John Carney plays the hits. Ever since his 2007 breakout indie Once, which catapulted beloved singer-songwriters Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová to massive fame, Carney has made musical dramas his calling card. The Irish writer-director delights in films about people connecting with each other over music, falling in love with song as they learn to love each other and themselves.

But Flora and Son, his latest film, feels a bit like a song played by a John Carney cover band. Maybe it’s a really good cover band and I’m fond of it, but it still can’t replicate the creative spark of an artist who’s latched onto something magical.

Maybe that’s harsh, given the genuinely fresh perspective Carney uses to ground Flora and Son. Like its title implies, the film follows Flora (Eve Hewson), a single mom struggling through various odd jobs while raising her teenage son, Max (Orén Kinlan), a morose troublemaker she seems to resent. In an effort to keep him in the authorities’ good graces, she saves a guitar from the dumpster, intending to give it to him. When he rejects the gift, she decides to learn guitar herself, and strikes up a flirty long-distance friendship with Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a guitar teacher offering lessons from California via Zoom.

What follows is a family dramedy with a touch of romance, as Flora, caught up in the constant hustle of trying to get by, learns via her guitar lessons that she has something to say. More importantly, though, she learns her son does, too. Flora and Son excels in its humane yet prickly depiction of Flora’s relationship with motherhood. Flora resents Max for what he represents: her rash teenage years, where she hooked up with good-for-nothing bassist Ian (Jack Reynor), who is barely