John Carney’s new feature film Flora and Son, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jack Reynor and Eve Hewson, has been added to the Sundance Film Festival line-up as a world premiere.

The film follows the journey of Flora, a young mother living in Dublin who lost touch with aspiration long ago. She juggles a sustenance-necessitated childcare job and a fraught co-parenting arrangement with her abrasive ex as she tries to raise her son, Max.

"Flora and Max’s brash rapport is both hilarious and revealing of their struggle to understand each other — she searches for autonomy and self-love masquerading as selfishness, while his longing for independence and self-expression manifests as delinquency," a description for the new flick reads. "When the two connect over a twice-discarded used guitar, the uniting power of music brings them closer than what simple proximity can provide."

Created in John Carney’s signature melodic style, Flora and Son is charming, uplifting, and musically dazzling. A high-energy performance from Eve Hewson and the chemistry between her and online guitar teacher (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) bring sweeping romance with an Irish punch to this buoyant piece.

Carney is known as the filmmaker behind such features as Once, Begin Again and Sing Street, with Flora And Son marking his first feature project since 2016. Hewson recently appeared in the hit comedy/drama series Bad Sisters on Apple TV+, written and starring Sharon Horgan. The show was recently renewed for a second season after climbing to the No.1 most watched slot on the US streamer service.

Other new films being added are Peter Nicks’ doc, Stephen Curry: Underrated, Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia, Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama, and Celine Song’s Past Lives.

Revisit our 2016 interview with John Carney here.