The reviews are unanimous in liking it. Most critics agree that Alan Parker’s story of working-class Dublin kids forming a soul band is fast-talking, foul-mouthed and funny, and that the music carries it. The praise clusters on the cast, an ensemble of mostly non-professional Dublin musicians whose spontaneous timing and raw energy several critics find remarkable. The audition scenes and the soul covers come up again and again, and Time Out calls it Parker’s best film to date.
The spread is narrow; nobody dislikes it, and the reservations are mild. The New York Times finds an occasional slickness beneath the hyperkinetic energy, and The New Yorker, though warm, treats it as a loose, friendly comedy that keeps the band’s modest achievements in perspective. Radio Times notes that the cast did not become the stars many expected. Critics returning to it years later say it has stood the test of time.