Best movie of this year hands down!

That was an excellent one.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

"Hearts Bead Loud" (2018 release; 91 min.) brings the story of Frank Fisher and his daughter Sam. As the movie opens, we see Frank in his Red Hook Records store in Brooklyn, but there is hardly any foot traffic. Meanwhile Sam is in summer school to prep for her upcoming pre-med college studies at UCLA. (No word on Sam's mom.) During an impromptu jamming session< Frank and Sam write a song called "Hearts Beat Loud" that actually sounds pretty good. When Franks sarcastically asks Sam what their band should be named, Sam shrieks "We're not a 'band', dad!", and shortly thereafter Frank puts "Hearts Beat Loud" by We're Not a Band on Spotify... At this point we're 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from director (and co-writer) Brett Haley, who before this brought us the excellent Sam Elliott vehicle "The Hero". Here, Haley brings us a wonderful "little" film that turns out to cover a lot more ground than what you might expect from the movie's opening premise. Of course, there is the father-daughter relationship, but there is, among others, also the pending start of Sam's college career at UCLA (yes, all the way on the other side of the country), which looms larger by the minute. The beauty of this film is that the characters are fleshed out, and we are dealing with real people, not some condensed "dumbed-down" characters. The movie sports a veritable all-star cast, none more so than Nick Offermann, who shines as the doubting ex-musician/record store owner/proud father. Sam is play by up-and-coming Kiersey Clemons in a breakout performance. Ted Danson has a small but pivotal supporting role as the bar owner/Frank's best friend. I can't recall having seen Dawson in such a wonderful performance in many years. Other supporting roles include Blythe Danner (as Frank's mom), Toni Collette (as Frank's landlord and possible romantic interest), and last, but certainly not least, Sasha Lane (as Sam's possible romantic interest), who came out of nowhere in 2016 and astonished us all in "American Honey". The original music and songs are courtesy of American movie composer Keegan DeWitt."Hearts Beat Loud" premiered at this year's Sundance film festival to positive buzz and critical acclaim. The movie opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The (discount) Tuesday evening screening where I saw this at was attended poorly (5 people, including myself). That's a darn shame. It is no coincidence that this movie is currently rated 90% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Hopefully the movie will find a wider audience when it premieres on other platforms. If you are in the mood for a sweet lil' film that you will easily identify with emotionally, I'd readily recommend you seek this out in the theater (if you still can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray. For me there is no doubt: "Hearts Beat Loud" is a WINNER.

I managed to catch this at a screening at the Edinburgh Film Festival. It was one of those bookings I took a risk on and knew very little about it apart from the fact Nick Offerman was the lead. Firstly this is a family focused feel good movie with a musical theme. If that doesn't sound like your thing then its not for you. We have Nick Offerman looking like an angry old owl who is a widower and has a musically talented daughter, Sam played by Kiersey Clemons. Sam is preparing to leave for medical school and her father is featuring less in her life as a result. The father and daughter make music together for fun, hence the musical content of the movie. Sam has also just started a same sex relationship with an artist, so we have a three way love tug of war centring on whether the daughter will leave her new love and father behind, just when the family band have a possibility of commercial success. That is all you need to know without giving any spoilers. What I did find interesting and authentic was the fact that they paid a fair bit of attention to the music making process, which as someone who is interested in this kind of thing is a bonus. We see them use MIDI keyboards, effects pedals on guitars and what also must be the first time Abelton Live and Push have been featured in a movie. Which is interesting in itself as the style of music played is not really the electronic kinds you would associate with Laptop driven music. The weaknesses I found in the story were funnily enough around the use of the internet, the main character is savvy enough to record and supposedly master (we never see this process) then upload his music to Spotify, but hasn't cottoned on to the fact he could be selling his music stock online as well? The music featured in the movie is basically Eno-esque indy pop by the family band with a bunch of other guitary indy type fodder. How much the music means to you will be down to your own tastes but music does feature heavily especially towards the finale. However as a feel good movie it definitely hits the mark and at no point during the movie did I feel a cringe or feel the story was becoming too sentimental, which is usually the case with these types of movies. This is an easy to watch movie and a rare exploration of the father daughter dynamic within a mixed race family over a shared love of music.

This movie had a terrific cast and the daughter/ father relationship just seemed unreal. It was a sweet enough movie but the whole musical presence was too much. And those songs were pretty lame. The Ted Danson, Toni Collette, and Blythe Danner characters had such meat, but they were left to rot. Major editing and writing flaws. Nick Offerman was engaging

A movie that is so painfully dull and uninteresting it made me want to wrap myself in barbed wire and drink a whiskey glass full of drano. There are definitely worse movies out there, at least every shot in this is in focus, but it was so painfully on the nose with all its phony sentimentality that I wanted to die. At one point I rolled my eyes so far into the back of my head that I saw a different dimension and my nose began to bleed. Anyways whatever. I seem to be the only one who didn't like this so I'll shut up.