In 1991, the year that Glen Hansard started The Frames, he also played Outspan, the baby-faced Dublin guitar player in "The Commitments, " a feature that has gained a global following. (It's one of my favorite films ever.) What makes "The Commitments" so widely loved is, among other pleasures, its use of a working-class rock band's rise and fall as an armature for individual drama.

WSJ: Film Review