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• The Commitments (1991) takes musical film to a new level

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After a decade of making solid, entertaining and controversial films in the US, like Midnight Express, Fame, Angel Heart and Mississippi Burning, British director Alan Parker returned to his home isles and made the musical gem The Commitments in 1991. This look at the short career of a working class Irish rhythm and blues band that called themselves The Commitments was one of the silver screen’s most energetic and vibrant looks at how American rock and R&B affected a foreign culture.

Set in the late 1980s, young musician and would be promoter Jimmy Rabbitte gathers a group of local musicians and three female backup singers to emulate the great R&B stars of the US. In an early pep talk to the gathered band members he begs them to think “soul” — “The Irish are the blacks of Europe; Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland; say it loud, ‘I’m black and I’m proud.’”

Written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais and Roddy Doyle, the film expands on Doyle’s working class novel, which would later be inspiration for the so-called Barrytown trilogy films, with The Snapper and The Van. Parker and his exuberant cast of mostly unknowns includes Robert Arkins as Rabbitte, Glen Hansard, the star of Once, a grungy lead singer played by Andrew Strong, and a raggedy old trumpet player played by Johnny Murphy. Their renditions of R&B standards Mustang Sally, Try a Little Tenderness, In the Midnight Hour and Take Me to the River are electrifying. Forget Belushi and Ackroyd’s Blues Brothers, rent this overlooked gem and set the volume loud.