Flora and Son

Flora and Son (2023) is an Irish musical drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by John Carney (Once, Begin Again, Sing Street). Carney's fourth music-centred film follows Flora, a frazzled Dublin single mother played by Eve Hewson, whose teenage son Max is heading somewhere she can't let him go. She picks up a battered acoustic guitar at random — no plan, just desperation looking for a shape.

Online lessons lead her to Jeff, a Los Angeles musician who has seen better decades, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. What starts as chord basics over video call turns into something messier and harder to name. Max couldn't care less about the guitar. He does notice that his mother seems slightly less adrift than before, which counts for something.

Carney has a specific talent for letting songs carry emotional weight that dialogue would crush — Flora and Son sits comfortably alongside his earlier work, though it's warmer and less sentimental than Sing Street. A film about picking up a new thing late and being surprised by what it opens up. Stream Flora and Son (2023) online on iFILM.