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.
Review of Hearts Beat Loud
